Crashed Weather Balloon Likely From China Found At Remote Island: Taiwan

Taipei: 

Taiwan’s military said today it had found the remains of a probable crashed weather balloon likely from China on a remote and strategically located island near the Chinese coast, amid a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has complained of increased harassment by Beijing’s armed forces over the past three years, including fighter jets flying near the island and drones buzzing offshore islets.

Taiwan’s army said that late Thursday morning its forces on Dongyin island, part of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago off the coast of China’s Fuzhou, observed an unknown object falling from the sky, then found the remnants of a balloon on a shooting range.

The sphere is about 1 metre in diameter with an instrument box marked with simplified Chinese characters – which are used in China but not Taiwan – and the wording “Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co., Ltd.”, “GTS13 digital datmospheric sounding instrument” and “meteorological instrument”, the army said.

Taiyuan is a major city in northern China. Reuters was not immediately able to locate contacts for the factory.

“The preliminary investigation determined that the remains were of a meteorological detecting instrument, which have been collected by the relevant departments for further evaluation,” Taiwan’s army said in a short statement.