Chinese satellite launch triggers emergency alert across Taiwan

Mistranslation of ‘satellite’ to ‘missile’ in message causes alarm and confusion days before presidential election

A Chinese satellite launch triggered a nationwide emergency alert in Taiwan on Tuesday just days before its presidential election, prompting some alarm and confusion as the English portion of the message erroneously translated satellite to “missile”.

The bilingual air raid alert blasted over loudspeakers and was sent to every mobile phone in Taiwan shortly after 3pm local time (0700 GMT), warning people to “be aware”. The message said in Chinese that China had launched a satellite at 3.04pm and it had flown over the southern part of Taiwan. The English portion said “[air raid alert] missile flyover Taiwan airspace”.