Taiwan Military Discovers Suspected Chinese-made Weather Balloon Crashed Near Coastline

The Taiwanese military claims to have discovered the wreckage of a suspected Chinese-made crashed weather balloon on a secluded island close to the Chinese coastline.

Taiwan Army Spots Chinese Balloon

The Straits Times reports that the army found the remnants of a "mainland air balloon" in the Dongyin Defense Area in the East China Sea, and preliminary findings suggest that the remnant came from an instrument used for meteorological detection.

The sphere features an instrument box marked with the words "Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co. Ltd," "GTS13 digital atmospheric sounding instrument," and "meteorological instrument," which are written in simplified Chinese characters that are used in China but not Taiwan.

The Taiwanese army reported that late on Thursday, Feb. 16 morning, its troops on Dongyin island, a part of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago off the coast of China's Fuzhou, saw an unidentified item fall from the sky before discovering the balloon's debris there.

The fragments were those of a meteorological detecting device based on the army, which stated that "the relevant departments have collected the remains for further evaluation."

China-Taiwan Tensions

China considers Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified, by force if necessary, as the superpower has stated numerous times.

For the last three years, Beijing's armed forces have increased their intimidation of Taipei, including fighter planes flying near the island and drones hovering over offshore islets.

According to a CNA story, the flight of suspected Chinese surveillance balloons has shown that Japan and Taiwan need to share "critical" intelligence about potential common aerial threats, a senior defence policymaker for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.

Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries, it is customary for Japanese and Taiwanese aircraft and ships to operate in close proximity to one another due to the closeness of their respective islands.

The CNA report tells us that Tokyo may change its rules of engagement to allow Japanese fighter jets to fire down the Chinese spy balloons even if the Japanese military did not intercept any of them. Only this month, the United States did something similar.

Taiwan's Next Move

Dongyin is situated at the top of the Taiwan Strait, near a key passage for any Chinese forces wanting to attack Taiwan from the eastern province of Zhejiang heading south. The island is well protected.

In 2022, Taiwanese soldiers saw the People's Liberation Army of China fly drones across the median line between China and Taiwan. This was the first time that Chinese UAVs were known to have crossed the border between the two countries.

China also sent drones to fly over Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast last August, when Beijing held war games near Taiwan. The games ended only when Taiwanese forces shot down one of the drones.

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