Chinese weather balloon spotted near Taiwan a month ahead of presidential election

Chinese military aircraft including 12 fighter jets also detected in Taiwan’s air defence zone in past 24 hours

Taiwan’s defence ministry has said that a Chinese balloon crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Thursday, about a month before Taiwan’s presidential election.

The ministry of national defence (MND) earlier described it as a “surveillance balloon” but the defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng later told reporters at parliament: “our initial understanding is that it was a sounding balloon”.