2024-01-08 05:33:09
“Beijing means that it can violate Taiwanese airspace and call into question its sovereignty,” said Raymond Kuo, Taiwan expert at the American institute Rand Corporation. China, which considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory, has vowed to one day bring the island back into its fold and has not ruled out using force to achieve this.
Two candidates in favor of a rapprochement with China
The presidential vote this Saturday will pit current Vice-President Lai Ching-te, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), defender of the island’s sovereignty, against two candidates favoring a rapprochement with China. The timing of the balloons’ appearance is “political,” Raymond Kuo said. “The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is trying to demoralize the Taiwanese public as the presidential and legislative elections approach,” said the expert, according to whom “Beijing adds a new operational challenge to the Taiwanese military forces” intended to test them .
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Taiwan’s Defense Ministry denounced on Saturday an “attempt to use psychological warfare to affect the morale of our people”, also describing the balloons as a “serious threat” to air links. When asked about this, the Chinese Ministry of Defense rejected any accusation of interference and accused Taipei of trying to “manipulate the elections”.
The balloons from China became a politically sensitive issue last year, after the United States shot down one of the aircraft, which it called a “spy”, after it entered its airspace . Beijing, for its part, claimed that it was a civilian airship that had deviated from its trajectory.
“Irresponsible” behavior
Since December, more than 20 balloons have crossed the median line that separates the self-ruled island from mainland China, and at least seven of them have flown over the island. According to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, they travel at altitudes between 12,000 and 36,000 feet (3.6 and 11 kilometers) and are detected day and night.
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According to James Char, a China specialist at the Singapore Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Beijing had already carried out missile tests near Taiwan in 1996 to intimidate voters and dissuade them from re-electing nationalist President Lee. Teng-hui. “It backfired,” he said. “This pushed the Taiwanese to vote in favor [d’un président] not pro-Beijing and not in favor of unification.”
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