It is untrue that Taiwan must worry only about China’s anti-Taiwan propaganda and anti-Taiwan diplomacy, nonstop military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, and surveillance balloons as China tries to bully the Taiwanese into surrendering their country during the closing weeks of Taiwan’s current presidential election season. Taiwan must also worry about China’s surveillance satellites.
South China Morning Post reports (December 10, 2023):
The first one went up on Monday….
Two more satellites…followed a day later aboard a Ceres-1 Y9 rocket launched from the Jiuquan centre and flying over the Indian Ocean.
And on Wednesday, a test communications satellite was sent into low orbit via a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket. Flying over the South China Sea, the rocket was launched through a sea platform from waters off the coast of Yangjiang in the southern province of Guangdong, Xinhua reported.
Four more satellites were also launched on the weekend….
Soon after each lift-off, Taiwan’s defence ministry took the unusual move of noting publicly that it was aware of the launches. The ministry appeared to avoid using any confrontational rhetoric that could stoke military tensions ahead of the island’s presidential elections next month.
It urged the public to remain calm and said the rocket launches posed “no threat” to the island.
Each statement ended with the line: “We have closely monitored the vehicle’s activity and are ready to respond, if necessary.”
The Taiwanese defense ministry says that the likely purpose of the multiplying satellites is to enable the People’s Liberation Army to spy on Taiwan’s military movements. Others concur.
Chieh Chung, a security analyst at the National Policy Foundation, a think tank affiliated with the main opposition Kuomintang party, said the launches also highlighted the need for Taiwan to counter the impact of Beijing using satellites in potential conflicts in the region.
Taiwan’s presidential election will be held on January 13, 2024.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “Taiwan’s Independent History”
“The raw truth is that no government of China, neither the current Communist administration nor the previous Kuomintang regime, has a persuasive legal or moral claim to sovereignty over Taiwan.”—Jonathan Manthorpe, Forbidden Nation
Defense One: “China’s new satellites extend its military reach, US says”
“New and better satellites are enabling China’s military to project power further into the Pacific and to more effectively threaten Taiwan, the Space Force’s top intelligence leader said….
“ ‘The significant growth of on-orbit capabilities of the PLA now allows them to see much further with greater precision at day and at night and through all weather,’ [Major General Greg Gagnon] said at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber conference outside Washington, D.C.”
