Military observers have spotted two Chinese balloons flying over Taiwan ahead of the island nation's presidential election.
The balloons traveled from China and over the Taiwan Strait on Dec. 17, and made a course to the north of the island nation, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said, as reported by ABC News. The ministry said the balloons reached an altitude of 27,000 feet, went east and disappeared at 9:36 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. local time.
Another Chinese balloon passed southwest of Keelung on Dec. 7.
China has flown these balloons over the U.S., Europe, South America and Taiwan, but the communist nation maintains the balloons are just used in weather data collection. (Related: New evidence reveals Chinese spy balloons are also flying over Japan and Taiwan.)
Taiwan's Defense Ministry also called them "weather balloons." Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said these weather balloons had floated toward Taiwan due to monsoon winds. Taiwan is on high alert ahead of its presidential election on Jan. 13, with Taipei and Washington warning Beijing not to influence the result.
Beijing, which has promised to one day seize Taiwan, has increased pressure since independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, frequently sending warplanes and vessels around the island.
The current frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election is the Democratic Progressive Party's William Lai, who openly supports the independence of Taiwan from Mainland China.
China's spy balloons have entered U.S. airspace before
The U.S. is very familiar with Chinese spy balloons, although the Biden administration worked thoroughly to hide the fact that they were used for espionage. The first balloon was reported floating over America on Feb. 2.
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The Biden administration let it go wherever the Chinese directed it to go over U.S. domain, as well as over military sites. The Department of Defense eventually shot it down on Feb. 4 after it floated out over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. During that same week in February, the Pentagon said another balloon was spotted flying over Latin America.
The incidents made Americans wonder who President Joe Biden's Pentagon is working for. "Joe Biden has just given the 'okay' for Chinese spy balloons to fly all over our nation. Have we ever looked weaker?" Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said in a social media post at the time.
NBC News reported in April that the Chinese spy balloon first spotted on Feb. 2 had in fact collected intelligence from American military sites, and the country's attempts to block it from doing so were not successful. However, the government maintained that the balloon was not gathering information on U.S. targets over which it flew.
"In terms of the balloon and the capabilities that it has, as you heard at the time, we were aware that it had intelligence collection capabilities, but it has been our assessment now that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States or over-flying the United States," Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a news conference.
Follow CommunistChina.news for more news about this communist Asian nation.
Watch the video below about the Pentagon getting caught lying about China's spy balloons.
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