A Chinese satellite flew over Taiwan's airspace, leading to more concerns as the incident happened ahead of the island's most-awaited presidential election.
On Tuesday, Jan. 9, China launched a new satellite that triggered an islandwide alert in the self-ruled Asian country. The nationwide air raid alert was sent to citizens as Taiwan is preparing for the upcoming election, which is scheduled on Jan. 13.
The launch of the Chinese satellite was days after numerous surveillance balloons were spotted across Taiwan, which allegedly came from Beijing as well.
Chinese Satellite Flies Over Taiwan's Airspace
According to BBC News' latest report, the Taiwan defense ministry (Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan) said that Beijing launched a satellite off the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Taiwanese defense officials stated that the orbital aircraft's launch happened at around 3:03 p.m. local time. This was also confirmed by China's CCTV (China Central Television); it announced the launch of the Einstein Probe, saying that it was a complete success.
Because of this, many Taiwanese officials and citizens become more concerned about China's intent to interfere with their presidential election. Taiwan's foreign minister Joseph Wu said that this satellite launch is a "greyzone" activity.
"When a rocket is openly flying in our sky, some of their tubes or debris will fall in this region," said Wu via Al Jazeera.
"That's the reason why our national alert center will issue this kind of alert. It has happened before," he added.
Will Chinese Satellite Interfere With Taiwan's Election?
The launch of the Chinese satellite is quite suspicious since it happened just a few days before Taiwan's election. This could lead to concerns that the spacecraft would be used for election interference.
However, Xinhua, a Chinese state news agency, claimed that this new satellite is designed specifically for astronomical observations and other similar activities.
The media company added that the Chinese satellite will be used to make observations. These include observing the mysterious transient phenomena in the universe comparable to the flickering of fireworks.
However, Taiwan will still speculate that this new Chinese satellite will be used to interfere with the upcoming presidential election, especially since the Chinese government reportedly announced its interference plans against Taiwan.
Based on previous reports, CCP's fourth-ranking leader Wang Huning urged other top Chinese officials to be more effective and discreet when disrupting the Taiwanese presidential election.
