Amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan, flights from northern Taiwan were delayed on Sunday after Beijing launched a rocket carrying a satellite that dumped debris in the waters north of the capital, Taipei.
Although the satellite launch had no apparent “military purpose”, it comes after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States earlier this month after China conducted large-scale military drills.
In particular, in the past few weeks, tensions have remained high and China sent warplanes over 200 sorties toward Taiwan late last week, while its navy ships circled the self-ruled island. Which claims that Chinese territory will be occupied by force if necessary.
“They pose no threat to our nation’s territory”: Taiwan
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry issued a statement on public media saying it had monitored the launch at 9:36 a.m. from the Jiuquan base in northwestern China. The statement said that although some rocket parts had landed within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, they did not pose any threat to “our country’s territory”.
China announced a 27-minute ban on flights over a part of the East China Sea, significantly shorter than the originally announced three-day no-fly period in some parts of the East China Sea.
Taiwan said it strongly protested the notice and had succeeded in briefly reducing the flight ban from China on Sunday morning.
Flight ban hits Japanese travelers
Still, the flight ban caused disruptions for passengers flying to Japan from Taipei’s Songshan Airport.
Li Yang-ming, 54, who works in the medical industry, said he had lost an afternoon of sightseeing in Tokyo after his departure time was pushed back by two hours.
Lee said, “We had fully planned our schedule.” “One day of our trip wasted.”
Recent Chinese exercises around Taiwan have been seen not only as a demonstration of its ability to attack the island, but also to cut off air and sea transit routes to the most important region for trade and travel in the world Is.
It has drawn strong condemnation from the US, Taiwan’s main ally, and warnings from other countries about the catastrophic impact of the Taiwan Strait conflict on the entire world.
(with inputs from AP)
Also read: ‘Prepared for war’, says Chinese military after large-scale maneuvers around Taiwan