© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A ship sails between wind generators within the Taiwan strait off the coast of Pingtan Island, Fujian province, China, April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File picture
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s defence ministry stated on Friday {that a} Chinese language climate balloon had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Thursday, a few month earlier than Taiwan’s presidential election.
“Our preliminary understanding is that it was a sounding balloon,” Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng informed reporters at parliament.
Taiwan, which China claims as its personal territory, incessantly accuses Beijing of searching for to exert navy or financial stress to sway its elections towards outcomes beneficial to the Chinese language authorities.
The island will maintain presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13.
China has stepped up its navy stress in opposition to Taiwan over the previous 4 years, together with staging two rounds of main warfare video games across the island prior to now 12 months and a half.
The defence ministry stated the balloon was detected 101 nautical miles (187 km) southwest of the northern Taiwanese metropolis of Keelung, and travelled eastward for about an hour earlier than disappearing.
Earlier this 12 months, the defence ministry stated a balloon that got here down on a distant Taiwanese-held islet near China’s coast was used for climate monitoring and had no audio-visual recording tools on board.