Taiwan’s Army on Wednesday confirmed that a close-range aerial photograph of two soldiers manning a guardhouse in Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township was taken by a Chinese civilian-operated drone.
The photograph, which has been widely circulated on Chinese social media, was taken around 6 p.m. on Aug. 16, the Army said, adding that the Lieyu Garrison Battalion had taken “appropriate responsive measure to repel the drone and launched counter-surveillance measures in accordance with standard procedures.”
It has been a standard procedure to fire warning flares to repel Chinese drones while refraining from more aggressive measures such as shooting aircraft down to avoid further escalating cross-strait tensions, according to a military source.
Kinmen County, also known as Quemoy, is a group of islands located roughly 10 kilometers east of the city of Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province administered by Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China.
Taiwan’s military has regularly reported sightings of Chinese civilian and military drones flying near Kinmen and the neighboring frontline county of Matsu since the beginning of the year.
The Army said it believed the drones were being used by the Chinese side to conduct surveillance of Taiwanese troops stationed at offshore frontline islands and to test the military’s response to such incursions.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel