Taiwan has not noticed any surveillance balloons from China in its neighborhood, the island’s defence ministry mentioned on Tuesday, as a dispute between China and america over spy balloons triggers worries about rising army tensions.
The U.S. army on Feb. 4 shot down what it referred to as a Chinese language spy balloon over South Carolina.
China mentioned the balloon was a civilian analysis craft that had mistakenly blown off target and on Monday it accused america of sending its spy balloons over China. The US denied that.
A Taiwan army intelligence officer mentioned the armed forces had not seen any surveillance balloons from China close to the island that had been just like the one shot down over america.
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“The vast majority of the balloons close to our waters had been used for meteorological functions,” the officer, Main Common Huang Wen-chi, advised a daily briefing in Taipei, including that the climate balloons posed no severe safety risk.
He mentioned the army would destroy any balloon approaching Taiwan’s territory that posed “excessive safety threats” however no such motion had been obligatory.
The balloons detected close to Taiwan has no steering functionality and thus they had been unlikely for use for surveillance functions, he added.
Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has ramped up its army actions close to the island lately, elevating fears Beijing may attempt to take management of the it by drive.
Taiwan vows to defend itself if attacked, saying Beijing’s sovereignty claims are void because the Folks’s Republic of China has by no means ruled the island.