China satellite launch prompts Taiwan alert ahead of pivotal vote

TAIPEI - Taiwan’s government issued an island-wide alert on Jan 9, saying a Chinese satellite had flown over its southern airspace, which Taiwan’s foreign minister described as part of a pattern of harassment days before a pivotal election.

The security alert was sent by the Defence Ministry to mobile phone users in Taiwan after 3pm, around the same time Chinese state media confirmed the launch of a science satellite.

The “presidential alert” described the projectile as a “satellite” in Chinese, and a “missile” in English.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry later blamed “negligence” for the mistaken reference to a missile.

Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan 13.

China regards the self-governing Taiwan as its territory to be reunified, and has cast the elections as a choice between peace and war across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said China had launched “a new astronomical satellite” called the Einstein Probe from the south-western province of Sichuan.

China had not previously announced the satellite launch and did not offer any details on its flight plan.

China made two satellite launches on consecutive days in early December from a launch site in Inner Mongolia. Neither of those had flown over Taiwan or triggered an alert.

China’s state media described the probe as a small satellite dedicated to high-energy astrophysics and astronomy.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, who was giving a press conference to dozens of foreign reporters as the shrill alert sounded, described the launch as a pattern of harassment towards Taiwan, just like the recent cases of

Chinese balloons spotted over the island.

“All these kinds of tactics are classified as grey-zone activities, (and) continue to remind the people here in Taiwan that there is a danger of war between Taiwan and China,” he told reporters.

“With these kinds of threats against Taiwan, I think we should be clear-eyed, we should not be provoked.”

China’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said later on Jan 9 that the rocket had flown more than 500km above the southern part of the island, and that debris had fallen only on China.

It noted the flight path was “abnormal”, which “may have posed a risk on the ground”, and so the alert was issued.

The ministry said it will conduct an in-depth review as to the incorrect usage in English of the word “missile”.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who was at a campaign event in the southern city of Kaohsiung, looked at a mobile phone and said “this is a satellite, not a missile – don’t worry”, the official Central News Agency reported.

But Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party criticised the alert, saying it had misled the public.

Taiwan accused China on Jan 6 of

threatening aviation safety

and waging psychological warfare on the island’s people with the recent spate of balloons.

Taiwan has complained for four years of stepped-up Chinese military action such as fighter jets regularly flying over the strait as part of a “grey-zone” strategy attempting to wear down Taiwan with offensive actions that stop short of full-blown conflict. REUTERS