The Taiwanese military announced that it had discovered remains of an artifact suspected of being a Chinese weather balloon, and decided to reinforce surveillance patrols of military installations in the face of Beijing’s threats against the island.
“Unidentified objects” were seen falling from the sky on Thursday over the Matsu Islands in the East China Sea, some 280 km from Taipei, the military said in a statement, which made the discovery on Thursday.
The remains of a meter-diameter balloon and a device were inscribed in Chinese characters of the simplified alphabet commonly used in China, which read ‘Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co., Ltd’ and a “meteorological instrument”, according to the same source, quoted by the AFP agency.
“Our initial analysis is that the fragments belong to a meteorological detection device,” he added, specifying that the pieces found were stored for analysis purposes.
“All units are obliged to reinforce patrols in military camps” and to monitor the situation, he adds.
For their part, the US authorities insist on the version that the object shot down on February 4 was a Chinese balloon equipped with surveillance equipment, which was part of a global spy program from China, despite Beijing’s denials.
The Chinese ‘spy balloon’ was located at the end of January over US airspace and shot down after days flying over different areas of the country, such as the state of Montana (northeast), where one of the three missile silo fields is located. nuclear power plants in the United States.
In the last week, three other flying objects were also shot down in the United States and in Canada, of which, so far, the United States authorities have not been able to confirm their origin.
As a result of the crisis and escalating tensions, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken postponed his first planned trip to China, without setting a new date.
Source: TSF
