(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The Taiwan Army Kinmen Defense Command said on Thursday (September 1) that at 12:00 on the same day, an unknown Chinese drone entered the restricted waters of Shiyu Island. After the separation was invalid, defensive shooting was carried out, and the drone fell into the sea after being hit.
The Ministry of Defense said that it will continue to search and monitor and monitor closely to ensure the safety of the defense area. Chinese officials have yet to respond.
Chinese civilian drones have frequently harassed Kinmen in recent days. On Wednesday (August 30), the Ministry of Defense issued a warning to three drones that entered the skies of Dadan, Erdan, Shiyu and other areas to shoot signal flares. The drones then flew away in the direction of Xiamen. ; and execute defensive fire to dislodge another drone.
Before this, a Chinese civilian drone took a close-up shot of a sentry in Kinmen, and local officers and soldiers spontaneously threw stones to drive them away, causing Taiwanese public opinion to question the lack of countermeasures of the Taiwanese army.
In response, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen once ordered on August 30 that the Taiwanese military should take strong countermeasures against Chinese drones. She said that the more provocative the enemy is, the more the Taiwan military needs to be calm and self-restrained, but this does not mean that the Taiwan military will not take countermeasures. She said she had ordered the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense to take necessary and strong countermeasures in a timely manner to safeguard Taiwan’s airspace security.
In view of China’s continued dispatch of drones to infest Taiwan’s outer islands, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen ordered on the 30th that the Taiwan National Army should take strong countermeasures against Chinese drones.
On the same day, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Qiu Guozheng also said in an inquiries from the media that the operation is a very careful assessment, and it is definitely not an easy task, and the Taiwan Ministry of Defense has also taken measures to improve the frequency of Chinese drones. He shared the relevant details, but he emphasized that the approach was based on self-defense.
The Kinmen Defense Command said after a Chinese drone harassed Kinmen on Monday (29th) that the garrisoned troops responded by following four steps of “warning, reporting, expelling, and defensive shooting.” Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense stated on the 24th of this month that after installing the drone defense system next year, it will give priority to the deployment of the system to outer island defense areas to face China’s gray area threat.
When asked about relevant questions on the 29th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference that there is no fuss about the relevant incident. “I also saw the video,” he said. “Chinese drones flew over ‘Chinese territory’. It’s not something to be surprised about.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on the same day refuting Zhao Lijian’s statement, saying that China has a clear teaching in ancient times, “uninvited people are called thieves”, and Taiwanese people do not welcome such thieves. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that in response to the foreign affairs department of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian expansionist government, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that the Chinese government always treats harassing other countries as a daily routine, and the title of “regional troublemaker” is indeed well-deserved.
The White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said on the 29th that China continues to try to establish a “new normal” for its activities against Taiwan, including ships and aircraft navigating the middle line of the Taiwan Strait. “They are trying to escalate the situation to a point where it becomes a new normal. We will not accept that,” he said.
(Comprehensive report)
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