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.
Taiwan’s defense ministry didn’t offer details about what type of Chinese craft were involved.
The White House disclosed that the CCP’s balloon program was linked to its military.
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.
‘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.
The increase in Chinese balloons heading toward Taiwan occurred as families in Taiwan and China were celebrating the Lunar New Year, which arrived on Feb. 10.
Last month, Taiwan condemned Beijing for repeatedly sending balloons crossing the strait, saying that they are a threat to aviation safety.
The ministry’s official described the 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.”
Taiwan will closely monitor the balloons’ movement, but shutting down the crafts is “a waste of ammunition,” Col. Wang Chia-chun, a senior official at Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, told a regular briefing on Jan. 9, adding that such a response was exactly what the CCP wanted Taipei to have.
Beijing dismissed Taipei’s complaints, saying that private companies have launched most of the balloons.
“Hundreds of thousands” of high-attitude balloons fly around the world every day,” Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a Jan. 31 briefing. “The floating balloons are mostly used for people’s livelihood purposes, such as meteorological monitoring. They have a long history and are nothing new.”
On Feb. 11, Taiwan’s defense ministry also detected six Chinese aircraft and four vessels operating around the island over the past 24 hours.
