TAIPEI - Three Chinese balloons flew across Taiwan on Jan 2 and near an air base, said Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, the first time it has reported them crossing the island since reporting a spate of such balloons in the Taiwan Strait starting in December.

The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue in February 2023 when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon.

China said the balloon was a civilian craft that had accidentally drifted astray.

Taiwan is on high alert for Chinese activities, both military and political, ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan 13.

China regards the self-governing Taiwan as its territory to be reunified. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry has since December reported several instances of Chinese balloons flying over the sensitive Taiwan Strait, then crossing airspace to the island’s north before vanishing.

On Jan 3, giving its daily update on Chinese military activities over the past 24 hours, the ministry said it had detected four balloons flying over the strait, three of which flew across the centre of the island.

It said the three flew 105 nautical miles (194km), 160 nautical miles and 159 nautical miles, respectively, to the south-west of Ching Chuan Kang, home to an important Taiwan air force base.

The balloons then disappeared at various points, added the ministry, which has previously said it believed they were mostly for weather monitoring.

Asked whether the latest balloons were for weather or other purposes, the ministry declined to comment specifically.

It “closely monitors and appropriately responds” to balloons, and gathers information about their path for “judgment and analysis”, the ministry said.

Over the past four years, China has stepped up military activity around Taiwan, and Chinese fighter jets and warships now regularly operate in the strait. REUTERS