《TAIPEI TIMES》 Military detects 33 China aircraft around Taiwan

PURPOSE UNCLEAR: Two balloons were also detected, bringing to seventeen the number of balloons that have floated over Taiwan or through its airspace since the elections

/ Staff writer, with AFP and AP

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More than 30 Chinese military aircraft were detected around Taiwan in a 24-hour window, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, marking the largest show of force around the nation since the Jan. 13 legislative and presidential elections.

In the 24 hours leading up to 6am yesterday, the ministry detected 33 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighters, and six naval ships operating around Taiwan, it said in a statement.

Thirteen of the aircraft “crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait,” it said.

The armed forces have “monitored the situation and employed [air patrol] aircraft, navy vessels and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities,” it said.

Two Chinese balloons were also detected crossing the Taiwan Strait.

Days after Vice President William Lai （賴清德） — who has called himself a “pragmatic worker of Taiwanese independence,” although he has moderated his stance and vowed to follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） path of maintaining the “status quo” — was elected president six Chinese balloons either flew over the nation or through airspace just north of it, the defense ministry has said.

The dispatch of such balloons, which generally disappear into the Pacific to the east, appears to be on the rise, although their purpose has not been publicly announced.

US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Friday said that China should explain the reason for the balloons.

“We’re aware that there were some of these surveillance balloons that were flown, particularly in — before and around the time of the election,” Kirby told a White House news briefing when asked whether he was aware of these incursions and what he thinks is the purpose. “As I said at the time, these are questions that the Chinese government need to answer — what was the purpose and — and what they were doing.”

“I don’t — we — it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to answer that question. Clearly, we made — at the time, asserted that there should be no interference in the people of Taiwan’s ability to conduct free and fair elections,” he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES