Taiwan finds crashed weather balloon on remote island, suspects mainland China
- Taiwan’s military on Dongyin island, off the coast of the mainland city of Fuzhou, spotted an unknown object falling from the sky, then found the remnants of a balloon
- ‘The remains were of a meteorological detecting instrument, which have been collected by the relevant departments for further evaluation,’ the army said
Taiwan’s military said on Thursday that it had found the remains of a probable crashed weather balloon, which is likely to have come from mainland China, on a remote and strategically located island near the Chinese coast.
The news comes amid a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons.
The island has complained of increased harassment by Beijing’s armed forces over the past three years, including fighter jets flying near the island and drones buzzing offshore islets.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory that must be taken under its control, by force if necessary.
Taiwan’s army said that late on Thursday morning its forces on Dongyin island, part of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago off the coast of the mainland city of Fuzhou, observed an unknown object falling from the sky, then found the remnants of a balloon on a shooting range.
The sphere is about one metre (3 feet) in diameter with an instrument box marked with simplified Chinese characters – which are used on the mainland but not in Taiwan – and the wording “Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co., Ltd.”, “GTS13 digital atmospheric sounding instrument” and “meteorological instrument”, the army said.