The National Security Bureau (NSB), Taiwan’s top intelligence agency, on Thursday confirmed that a Chinese military aircraft crashed in the disputed South China Sea earlier this month.
It was the first time that a government agency from any country acknowledged the crash, details of which were first made public by a Vietnamese journalist on March 6.
Speaking at a hearing held by the Legislature’s National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, NSB Director-General Chen Ming-tong (???) said Beijing had promptly launched a search and rescue mission to recover the downed aircraft.
According to a social media post by a Vietnamese reporter identified only as Duan Dang, a Chinese Y-8 maritime patrol aircraft lost contact in the southwestern area of Sanya on the afternoon of March 1.
The reporter claimed that China then launched a search and rescue operation disguised as a training drill from March 1 to March 2.
Chen said China had made use of the incident to seal off the area around the crash site as well as reassert disputed sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, with the Western world distracted by Russia’s commencement of military operations in Ukraine.
He added that Beijing also continued to conduct marine patrols in the South China Sea, using the China Coast Guard Law as a basis to exert authority and threaten neighboring states that hold competing claims in the area.
Chen, however, refused to give more details on how the NSB obtained the information concerning the Chinese military aircraft crash, citing confidentiality.
Territorial rights in the South China Sea are claimed either entirely or in part by Taiwan, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Deputy Defense Minister Po Horng-huei (???), who also gave testimony at Thursday’s committee hearing, said it would be difficult to confirm if the crashed Y-8 aircraft had previously entered Taiwan’s southwestern Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been making incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ almost daily over the past two years, and Y-8s are frequently featured in their sorties.
Chen and Po were briefing lawmakers on the assessment from Taiwan’s military, foreign affairs, and intelligence agencies of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its possible effects on cross-strait affairs as well as contingency measures.
According to Taiwan military’s report, PLA troops’ deployment remain normal with no major movement amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in light of the Ukrainian military’s successful use of man-portable FGM-148 Javelin and FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missile launchers, ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (???) raised a committee proposal to have Taiwan military train its reservists to use these two weapon systems.
In response, Maj. Gen. Lee Tien-lung (???) said the Ministry of National Defense would enhance air-defense-related training for reservists, without commenting directly on the future use of man-portable air defense systems.
The non-binding proposal ultimately cleared the committee.
Taiwan’s armed forces currently have hundreds of Javelin and Stinger systems in their inventory, but they are not used in reservist training.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel