Taiwanese troops on Thursday (Sept. 1) shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that had intruded over Lion islet in Kinmen County and failed to heed warnings, after the government vowed to take tough measures to deal with an increase in such intrusions.
The Army’s Kinmen Defense Command (KDC) at 1:40 p.m. on Thursday announced that at 12:03 p.m., an unidentified “civilian” UAV entered the airspace over the restricted waters of Shiyu Islet in Kinmen’s Lieyu Township. Taiwanese troops responded by following standard operating procedures.
The Taiwan-controlled islet is only 2.5 miles from the Chinese city of Xiamen, where the device is thought to have originated.
After the drone ignored warnings, troops fired live rounds at the UAV and succeeded in shooting it down. The command stated that it will continue to maintain vigilance and closely monitor the situation.
Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone.(Illustration: Jarrod Fankhauser)
This is the third day in a row that Taiwanese soldiers have been forced to fire live ammunition at drones intruding over Kinmen’s islands. On Tuesday (Aug. 30), soldiers fired at a Chinese UAV for failing to respond to warnings while circling over Erdan Island, before it retreated to China’s Xiamen, marking the first time Taiwan troops had fired live ammunition at a Chinese drone.
On Wednesday, troops fired on three “civilian” Chinese drones that intruded on the airspace over Lieyu, Dadan, and Caoyu islands, and all three quickly flew away toward Xiamen. Thursday’s incident marks the first time Taiwanese troops have shot down a suspected Chinese drone.
According to the Ministry of National Defense, the drone fell into the sea after being shot down, and the Army is unable to provide photos of the wreckage at this time.
Lion, also known as Shi or Shihyu, is an islet located northwest of Little Kinmen (Lieyu) island in Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen County. Virtually a rock, Lion is the smallest Taiwanese island with troops stationed on it.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday instructed the military to take a tough response to Chinese drone incursions.
“I have ordered the Ministry of National Defense to take necessary and strong countermeasures at appropriate times, to defend the security of the nation’s territorial airspace,”
Tsai said during an inspection tour of Penghu, another outlying island.
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” against what she termed Chinese provocations.
China’s foreign ministry, which on Monday dismissed Taiwan’s complaints about drones as nothing “to make a fuss about”, referred questions to the defence ministry, which had yet to comment.
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 defence measures”, as Chinese aircraft were not allowed into Kinmen’s air space. Those measures include forcing aircraft to leave or to land, he said.
Taiwan has controlled Kinmen, which at its closest point is a few hundred metres (feet) from Chinese territory, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists in 1949.
During the height of the Cold War, China regularly shelled Kinmen and other Taiwanese-held islands along the Chinese coast, but they are now tourist destinations.
Photo: The flag of Taiwan is seen painted on an islet in Kinmen, in front of Xiamen, a coastal city in China [Ann Wang/ Reuters]
Sources: Taiwan News; Reuters; rfa; abc news