No need to shoot down all Chinese balloons: Defense official

Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) A senior Taiwanese defense official on Tuesday said the military will not shoot down all Chinese balloons found flying across Taiwan because doing so would waste of ammunition and is "exactly what the Chinese want."

Colonel Wang Chia-chun (王家駿), deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense's (MND) joint operations planning section, said shooting down the balloons, which have been entering Taiwanese airspace daily since the beginning of 2024, would be a waste of ammo and be the exact response China wants Taiwan to have.

During the regular MND briefing, he added that Taiwan's standard military response is to issue alerts to relevant authorities and for military branches to closely monitor their movements, particularly if they are found to be flying near more densely populated areas.

The military will also closely monitor if any balloon debris is found in Taiwan, he added.

The daily sending of balloons to Taiwan is, according to the MND, part of Chinese "gray zone" tactics in the lead-up to the election day on Jan. 13 and meant to "harass and rattle the Taiwanese people."

The ministry urged the public to remain calm in the face of Chinese cognitive warfare and not to be influenced by such tactics.

According to Colonel Huang Ming-chieh (黃明傑), an MND intelligence officer, Taiwan's armed forces have so far this year not detected any Chinese balloon debris.

Huang did not say if the military believed these balloons were for espionage purposes but stressed that all military units were ready to deploy anti-espionage measures, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, military spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said during the same briefing that the military would only respond more actively to Chinese balloons if they were believed to have the potential to cause severe damage to the nation, without elaborating.

Taiwan's military has generally assessed the balloons as being for meteorological purposes, a conclusion drawn in part from its investigation of balloon debris found in Feb. 2023 around Dongyin islet.

The MND said last year that similar equipment has been regularly detected in the air and sea around Taiwan, most often between December and February, because seasonal winds bring the balloons closer to Taiwan.

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