Taiwan has said balloons as part of the CCP’s “grey zone” tactics against Taiwan ‘in an attempt to use cognitive warfare to affect the morale of our people.’
Eight Chinese balloons crossed the Taiwan Strait in the 24 hours leading to the morning of Feb. 11, the defense ministry in Taipei said, the second day in a row that it has tracked an uptick in Chinese activity.
Five of the eight balloons crossed over the main island of Taiwan, according to the ministry’s daily
report on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military activities.
Taiwan’s defense ministry didn’t offer details about what type of Chinese craft were involved.
The potential for the CCP to use high-altitude balloons to surveil other countries was revealed in February 2023 when the Biden administration
shot down a suspected Chinese balloon that had traversed the continental United States.
The White House disclosed that the CCP’s balloon program was linked to its military.
“We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
said during a news conference at the time. “We know that these surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners.”
Taiwan began to include data on Chinese balloon sightings in its daily reports on the CCP’s military activities in December 2023, although the ministry noted that China had for years sent balloons near the self-governed island.
The CCP claims Taiwan as its own territory to be taken by force if necessary, and its top leader, Xi Jinping, has
vowed to achieve “reunification” with democratically governed Taiwan, even as the CCP has never ruled the island.
‘Grey Zone’ Tactics
On Feb. 10, Taiwan also tracked eight Chinese balloons crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line in the past 24 hours. That set a daily record for Chinese balloons floating near Taiwan since Taipei’s ministry began releasing such data in December 2023.
The median line of the Strait, which once served as an unofficial boundary between Taiwan and China, was drawn by the U.S. military decades ago to ease tensions between the two neighbors. The CCP said that line didn’t exist, and its military planes frequently overflew it.
