Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported seeing four Chinese spy balloons flying over the island's territory, three of which were said to have passed near a key air force base.
On Monday, the self-governing island said it spotted a single spy flight crossing over its territory and was followed by three more the following day. The incident comes a few days before a pivotal presidential election that will have ramifications on China-Taiwan relations.
Chinese Spy Balloons Over Taiwan
In a statement, Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Sun Li-fang said that the Chinese spy flight appears to be built to collect atmospheric data. However, whether or not it has other functions is currently unknown.
The official added that the Taiwanese government is closely monitoring and controlling the situation and is taking appropriate measures. Authorities are also summarizing the suspected spy balloons' flight paths for judgment and analysis.
The United States last year documented a similar spy flight by China that flew across its territory before it was shot down on the coast of South Carolina. A second spy balloon was found after it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, as per Fox News.
There were three more Chinese surveillance crafts that were found to have flown over Texas, Florida, and Guam during the Trump administration. It remains unclear how long Beijing has been operating the espionage program that relies on dated spy flight technology along with modern surveillance techniques.
The program has been primarily run out of China's Hainan Island province off its southeast coastline in the South China Sea by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It has been said to operate over regional neighbors, including Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and India.
The spy flights are believed to be used by the Chinese government to collect military intelligence from other nations that are of strategic interest to Beijing. They have also emerged in the United States in the past.
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Reunification of Beijing and Taipei
The latest group of spy balloons over Taiwan comes as Beijing is upping its threat to use force in order to annex the self-governing island nation. Taiwan's next elections will be held on Jan. 13 and China has taken advantage of its military, diplomatic, and economic power to influence voters to back candidates that support the unification of China and Taiwan, according to ABC News.
However, the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party is leading in the majority polls, which reaffirms the electorate's backing for the status of de-facto independence from mainland China.
Beijing regularly deploys navy ships and warplanes to waters and airspace near Taiwan and its use of its spy balloons could be a new stage in its efforts to intimidate the island. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry added that the air base that the spy balloons passed close to was the Ching-Chuan-Kang air base.
In the past few months, Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeated his rhetoric on Beijing's territorial claims on Taiwan. In his New Year's Day speech, he said that China's "reunification" with the island is inevitable and will come in the future, said Axios.
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