TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — With one day left before Taiwan's general elections, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said on Friday (Jan. 12) it had tracked 10 Chinese military aircraft, six naval vessels, and five balloons around the country between 6 a.m. Thursday (Jan. 11) and 6 a.m. Friday (Jan. 12), while two Chinese rockets carrying satellites were also launched on Thursday.
Of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft, two had crossed the median line or entered the north and southwest sectors of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The tracked aircraft included one Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet, which crossed over the median line in the northern sector of the ADIZ, and one Shaanxi y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, which flew in the southwest corner of the ADIZ.
The MND said five Chinese balloons were detected at 4 a.m., 6:12 a.m., 6:56 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4:22 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 11) after crossing the median line. The first, second, and fourth were detected 240 km (130 NM), 246 km (133 NM), and 264 (143 NM) northwest of Pingtung County, while the third and fifth were spotted 166 km (90 NM) and 142 km (77 NM) northwest of Keelung City.
Their altitudes were 5,400 m (18,000 ft), 7,900 m (26,000 ft), 7,000 m (23,000 ft), 5,700 m (19,000 ft), and 5,700 m, respectively. The balloons flew in an easterly direction, sequentially disappearing at 8:59 a.m., 7:03 a.m., 9:07 a.m., 3:14 p.m., and 8:20 p.m. on Thursday.
Two of the balloons flew off the north coast of Taiwan, two disappeared at the southern end of the Taiwan Strait, and one flew completely across southern Taiwan.
In addition, the MND announced that a Chinese rocket blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:52 a.m. on Thursday heading towards the Indian Ocean before leaving the atmosphere. It reported that a second Chinese rocket was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday heading towards the West Pacific.
According to China's state-run Xinhua, the rocket launched at 11:52 a.m. was a Kuaizhou-1A carrying a Tianxing-1 02 satellite, and it described the purpose of the satellite as "mainly used for experiments such as space environment detection." Xinhua reported that the second rocket, a Gravity-1 (YL-1), took off from a sea platform as it carried three meteorological satellite types into orbit.