by Andrea Pinto
A few hours ago, Taiwan's Defense Minister reported to the media that yesterday, two alleged Chinese sounding balloons crossed the Taiwan Strait, remaining well north of the island. It is the second time this month that Taipei has reported the presence of such objects in the vicinity of national airspace. The possibility of China using balloons for espionage became a global concern last February, when the United States shot down what it claimed was a Chinese surveillance balloon. China has always maintained the theory that the balloons were used only for civilian purposes and that they had accidentally lost their way due to strong winds.
In the American case, from the debris of the explosion of the spy balloons it was discovered that they were powered by solar panels and were equipped with sophisticated equipment capable of sending images and videos captured from the area of interest. Air balloons, compared to traditional satellites, remain at around 60 thousand meters for as long as necessary and do not have the problem of latency. Furthermore, they are much less expensive than satellites, although more vulnerable. The spy balloons would then escape traditional radars because they are much smaller than a common aircraft: in fact, American regulatory bodies have been forced to increase the level of accuracy of civil air traffic radars in order to detect even small-sized elements in flight.
Returning to yesterday's event, Taiwan is in a state of maximum alert, in view of the presidential and parliamentary elections on January 13th and is monitoring with particular attention all the military and political moves of Beijing which, for its part, is trying to interfere in the vote, trying to influence voters in favor of candidates acceptable to China.
Taiwan's defense ministry said the two balloons were spotted at 9:03 a.m. and 2:43 p.m., after crossing the median of the strait about 110 nautical miles (204 km) northwest of the port city. from Keelung, northern Taiwan. The balloons flew at an altitude of about 27.000 feet (3.230 meters), heading east and disappearing at 9:36 a.m. and 16:35 p.m., respectively. According to Taiwan's Ministry of Defense, they are believed to be meteorological sounding balloons, spokesman Colonel Sun Li-fang said.
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