Taiwan's
military for the first time downed an unidentified civilian drone that
entered its airspace near an islet off the Chinese coast on Thursday.
The defense command for Kinmen, a group of Taiwan-controlled islands opposite China's
Xiamen and Quanzhou cities, said in a statement released by Taiwan's defense ministry that the
drone entered restricted air space over Lion Islet just after midday (0400 GMT).
It added personnel on the islet tried warning it away but to no effect, so shot it down.
The remains of the drone landed in the sea.
Viewers may note that Taiwan fired warning shots at a drone for the first
time on Tuesday marking a new escalation point in the long standing confrontation.
In this video Defense Updates reports on the first-ever shoot-down of a Chinese
drone by Taiwan. Let's get started.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and wants to bring it to its fold in the
future and has not ruled out the use of force. Taiwan is currently a self-governed democracy.
While China's aircraft and warships routinely try to intimidate Taiwan, since the recent visit of
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, the provocations have increased significantly.
Taiwan's government has said it will not escalate tensions but has been
particularly angered recently by repeated cases of Chinese
drones buzzing islands controlled by Taiwan close to China's coast.
The Kinmen command described the drone as being for “civilian use,” but did not say
if it had been recovered or what weapon was used to bring it down.
Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei after losing
a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists in 1949, Taiwan has controlled Kinmen
The island is just a few hundred meters from Chinese territory at its closest point.
Kinmen's strategic location in the Taiwan Strait has led to numerous confrontations.
In August 1958, Kinmen was heavily bombarded by the People's Liberation
Army during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. Currently, they are now tourist destinations.
Chiu Chui-cheng,
deputy head of Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council,
told reporters in Taipei that Taiwan had the legal authority to take "necessary defense
measures", as Chinese aircraft were not allowed into Kinmen's air space.
Those measures include forcing aircraft to leave or to land, he said.
Speaking to the armed forces earlier on Thursday, Tsai said China was using drones and other "grey
zone" tactics to try to intimidate Taiwan, her office cited her as saying in a statement.
The statement added that Tsai again emphasized that Taiwan would not
provoke disputes but that did not mean that it would not take countermeasures.
It said, "She has also ordered the Ministry of National Defense to take
necessary and strong countermeasures in a timely manner to defend national security.
Let the military guard the country without fear and with solid confidence."
China's foreign ministry, which on Monday dismissed
Taiwan's complaints about drones as nothing "to make a fuss about"
Chinese actions are neither new nor random, it is part of its Salami Slicing strategy.
This strategy aims for the slow accumulation of small changes.
China’s strategy relies on low-intensity but constant and
simultaneous small provocations at multiple pressure points.
This serves to stretch thin the capabilities of smaller nations like Taiwan, the
Philippines & Vietnam to respond while limiting the risk of escalation to a manageable level.
It was important for Taiwan to stand up to the continued provocations since
inaction would have embroiled the Chinese Military even more.