The Taiwanese Defense Ministry tracked four Chinese balloons passing over the Taiwan Strait on Monday and Tuesday.
Taiwan detected several Chinese balloons passing over the Taiwan Strait last month, but none of those balloons flew directly over the island as Tuesday’s flights did.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry declined an opportunity to state for the record whether it believed the new balloons were surveillance platforms, weather balloons, or something else. The ministry said that it “closely monitors” all objects entering Taiwanese airspace and “appropriately responds” to each incursion.
Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Sun Li-fang ventured that the four balloons at least resembled the type of platform employed to collect atmospheric data for meteorologists. It seems unusual for Chinese weather balloons to pass directly over Taiwan, something they have never done before.
The balloon sightings raised concerns in light of the February 2023 debacle in which a Chinese spy balloon flew over the continental United States, apparently gathering intelligence from several military installations.
