Taiwan’s armed forces shot down for the first time an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off the coast of China on Thursday, after the government promised to take drastic measures to deal with the rise in such intrusions.
Beijing, which sees Taiwan as its territory against the strong objections of the Taipei government, has been holding military exercises around the island since the beginning of last month in response to the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei.
The Taiwanese government has said it will not provoke or escalate tensions, but has been particularly troubled by the repeated cases of Chinese drones buzzing around Taiwan-controlled islands off the coast of China lately.
The defense command of Kinmen, a group of Taiwanese-controlled islands opposite the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, said in a statement released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense that the drone entered restricted airspace over Lion Islet shortly after local noon.
The soldiers on the island tried to warn him, but to no avail, so they shot him and his remains fell into the sea.
Taiwan fired warning shots at a drone for the first time on Tuesday, shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen ordered the military to take “strong countermeasures” in the face of what he called Chinese provocations.
China’s Foreign Ministry, which on Monday dismissed Taiwan’s claims about drones as anything “not to make noise”, referred questions to the Defense Ministry, which has yet to comment.
source: Noticias
