Taiwan’s military on Sunday confirmed media reports that multiple weather balloons used by the Chinese military passed over the country shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday, but stressed they posed no security threat and were being used for meteorological observations.
“The Air Force has full grasp of the movements (of the balloons). It is believed they are being be used for meteorological observations,” military spokesman Shih Shun-wen (???) told CNA.
Shih’s comments came after local Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) reported Saturday that at last four groups of an unspecified number of weather balloons were released into the atmosphere by a long-range rocket unit under an artillery brigade from the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Fujian-based 72nd Group Army.
The balloons were detected at an altitude of 9,000-10,000 feet (2,743-3,048 meters) by Taiwan Air Force’s radar system above Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, sometime after the conclusion of the Lunar New Year vacation in mid-February, the UDN report said.
The Chinese weather balloons have raised concerns in some quarters, particularly amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and following an order from President Tsai Ing-wen (???) that the nation’s armed forces should remain on high alert, the UDN report said.
Asked to comment, Su Tzu-yun (???), an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said Sunday that even if the balloons were meant for military purposes, they were likely aimed at detecting atmospheric density for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command and pose no immediate security threat.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Sunday released a video clip reassuring the nation that the armed forces have beefed up patrols and strengthened combat preparedness to deter China from seeking to take advantage of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis to invade Taiwan.
“The military has continued to step up surveillance, remains alert 24/7 and is closely observing military activities across the Taiwan Strait. We are determined and capable of defending the country,” the MND said in the clip posted on its Facebook page.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel