- More Chinese spy balloons appear to be drifting around.
- This time, Beijing is flying the balloons over neighboring Taiwan.
- Last year, China sparked a diplomatic crisis when it floated a spy balloon over the US.
And this time Beijing is flying the balloons over neighboring Taiwan, possibly as an ominous warning message before the self-governing island's high-stakes elections.
Last year, China floated a spy balloon above the continental United States, sparking a diplomatic crisis before the device was shot down by a US fighter jet.
Since last month, Taiwan's defense ministry has reported more than a dozen sightings of balloons from China floating over the Taiwan Strait and into the island's airspace before ultimately disappearing.
Four Chinese balloons crossed the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday with three of them reportedly floating near the major Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in the city of Taichung, according to Taiwan's defense ministry.
Three more Chinese balloons with altitudes of 36,000, 24,000, and 15,000 feet were again spotted on Wednesday, the defense ministry said. Another balloon was detected on Thursday.
Taiwan defense ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Sun Li-fang told reporters this week of the balloons that the government "is closely monitoring and tracking them, responding appropriately, and is also assessing and analyzing their drift patterns," according to The New York Times.
The ministry has previously said it seems like the Chinese balloons were primarily being used for weather monitoring purposes, but it didn't comment on the latest balloon sightings, Reuters reported.
Experts told the Times that the Chinese balloons could be seen as a warning sign before the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary election in Taiwan.
"It's more an intimidating effect in what happens to be a quite sensitive time, with we in Taiwan holding our election on Jan. 13," Ko Yong-Sen, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taiwanese think tank, told the Times.
Ko explained that China "may want to tone it down."
"People say that it has recklessly used major weapons like planes and ships for harassment, so it's shifted to balloons that can be used for a certain kind of lower-intensity intimidation and harassment," Ko told the news outlet.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory, while Taiwan considers itself independent from the mainland.
On Taiwan's upcoming election, a senior Chinese official recently urged the island to make the "correct choice," noting the vote could shape the prospects for peace or war.
China, which rejects any notion of Taiwan's sovereignty, favors other Beijing-leaning political parties, such as the Kuomintang, over the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.
