A senior Pentagon official arrived in Taiwan amid rising tensions over Chinese spy balloons

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Defense, Michael Chasearrived this Friday at Taiwan amid heightened tensions with the Chinese regime For the bone spy balloons detected last month.

His official visit to the island, which was confirmed by a source close to the newspaper FinancialTimestakes place less than two weeks after US to shoot down Chinese spy balloon in its airspace, which should draw criticism from Beijing.

Similarly, a Pentagon spokesperson noted in statements to the aforementioned outlet that “US support for Taiwan, especially military, remains strong in the face of the threat posed by China”.

The Chinese regime, for its part, was anticipating any such visit and, given rumors of the arrival of a senior US government official, expressed its “I strongly reject any official contact between the United States and Taiwan.”

Chase thus became the first senior Pentagon official to visit the island in four years, when the Under Secretary for East Asia, Heino Klincktraveled in 2019, becoming the highest ranking official to visit Taiwan in four decades.

The Ministry of Defense of Taiwan indicated on Friday that a weather balloon The Chinese landed on one of its outer islands, while UNITED STATES maintains that beijing has deployed such devices around the world to spy on Washington and their allies.

The balloon had equipment registered with a state-owned electronics company in the northern city of Taiyuan, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The islet on which he appeared, Tungyinis part of the archipelago of Matsulocated off the Chinese province of Fujian.

The government of Taiwan observed crowd of Chinese spy balloons in its airspace in recent years, raising fears in Taipei that Beijing is preparing for an attack on the country.

“They come very frequently, the last one just a few weeks ago,” said a senior Taiwanese official. Another person related to the file consulted by the FinancialTimes argued that these raids took place on average once a month.

Previously, the Taiwan government had confirmed only one such incident as of February 2022in which several Chinese balloons would have flown over the north of the island.

Taiwan has maintained control of these islands since the two sides parted ways in 1949 amid civil war and they are seen as a first line of defense just in case. China decide to follow through on your threat to bring the island under your control, by force if necessary.

(With information from Europa Press)

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