Taiwan to ‘shoot down and destroy’ mainland Chinese balloons if they pose a risk

Security statement comes as BBC report says Japan and Taiwan targeted by Beijing’s spy balloon programme

Taiwanese military are tracking any movements of high-altitude balloons from mainland China, intelligence officer from island’s defence ministry says

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A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as seen from a US Air Force jet in February. Photo: Handout via AP

Published: 8:37pm, 27 Jun 2023Updated: 9:05pm, 27 Jun 2023

Taiwan will shoot down mainland Chinese balloons if they are seen to present a threat, the island’s military has said.

The statement from the Taiwanese defence ministry on Tuesday came as new reports emerged of Beijing’s “spy balloon” programme in the region, with latest findings by the BBC showing Taiwan and Japan were targeted in East Asia.

The BBC reported “multiple images of balloons crossing East Asia”, following a joint project with artificial intelligence company Synthetaic, which analysed huge amounts of satellite data.

There was evidence of balloons crossing Japan and Taiwan in September 2021, the report said.

Japan has also confirmed that balloons flew over its territory and said it was prepared to shoot them down in future, the report on Monday said.

Announcing a similar strategy at a news conference on Tuesday, Major General Lin Wen-huang, joint operations planning director of Taiwan’s defence ministry, said: “If these balloons are intimidating or risky to Taiwan, we will shoot them down and destroy them to uphold our security.”