Taiwan is developing a response strategy to a new electronic warfare variant of a new type of Chinese drone spotted northeast of Taiwan that might be capable of disrupting the Taiwanese military’s radio communications, media reported.
The drone appears to be a new version of China’s Harbin BZK-005 medium-altitude, long-range drone, which has repeatedly entered Taiwan and Japan’s air defense identification zones, the Taipei-based Liberty Times reported on Sunday.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced that a Chinese BZK-005 reconnaissance drone was spotted on Friday last week, when it flew to the west Pacific via airspace between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island and flew back using the same route.
Photos released by the Japanese ministry show that the BZK-005 drone was different from ones spotted earlier as it had a large number of antennas under the nose of the aircraft and a pod for an unknown purpose attached under its belly.
A military source told the Liberty Times that the new version of the drone could be deployed to disrupt all radio communications within the chain of command in the Taiwanese military and cause the radar system to malfunction.
China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never ruled out invading the island to enforce its territorial claim.
Taiwan aims to increase its defense spending to NT$647 billion (US$19.76 billion) next year to the biggest sum ever as it seeks to bolster its defenses and its cooperation with democratic allies, President Lai Ching-te announced last week.
Beijing fiercely opposed Lai in his bid to become president in a January election. He ran on a platform of promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait while not compromising on claims of Taiwanese sovereignty.
China responded to Lai’s inauguration in May with two days of military exercises around the island. Taiwan held its annual Han Kuang military drills on the island of Kinmen in late July.
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On the diplomatic front, Taiwan is considering closing down its representative office in Macau over a request by the government of the former Portuguese colony that a new employee at the office, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, or TECO, sign a “One China” affidavit, the Liberty Times reported.
The “One China” principle, China’s official position, states that the government in Beijing is the sole legitimate representative of China, that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and that resolving the question of the democratic island’s sovereignty is an internal Chinese affair, which no external force has the right to interfere in.
TECO Macau is aiming to fill a vacancy created by the departure of an employee on July 23, but Macau’s government requested that the newly appointed official sign an affidavit recognizing Beijing’s One China principle as a precondition for a visa, which the office refused, said a source, cited by the Liberty Times.
TECO Macau is supposed to have eight Taiwanese officials, but it has been left with only two and 14 employees from Macau, which means the office can not operate in a sustainable way as new appointments would be forced to sign the pledge, the paper added.
One way out could be to follow the example of TECO Hong Kong, which is operated solely by local employees, while a worst-case scenario would be closing TECO Macau, an unidentified source told the Liberty Times.
Edited by RFA Staff.