The Taiwan Ministry of National Defense apologized Tuesday after it mistakenly sent out air raid alerts to residents, with the English version mistakenly claiming China had launched a missile into Taiwanese air space—an error blamed on a mistranslation—ahead of elections in Taiwan that have raised tensions with China.
Taiwan's Nationalist Party presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih waves to supporters from a motorcade as ... [+]
The Chinese version of the alert correctly told residents that an object that flew over Taiwan was a satellite, the launch of the so-called “Einstein” probe, which was confirmed by state media.
The launch trajectory unexpectedly entered Taiwan’s airspace, triggering an air raid alert in the form of text messages, but the default English message “was not revised and therefore incorrectly stated the launch vehicle as ‘missile,’” the Ministry of National Defense said.
The Ministry “extends an apology for any confusion this may have caused.”
The false alert comes ahead of presidential elections in Taiwan that the Chinese government has framed as “a choice between war and peace.” The Chinese government has long claimed sovereignty over Taiwan—a claim disputed in Taiwan. China views the frontrunner, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party as being unfriendly toward China. In recent days, China has sent multiple balloons into Taiwanese airspace despite rebukes from the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense, which has framed the balloons as an intimidation tactic ahead of the election.
“All these kinds of tactics are classified as grey-zone activities (and) continue to remind the people in Taiwan that there is a danger of war between Taiwan and China,” said Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu, who responded to the alerts in live-time, as he was press conference when the alerts went off, according to Reuters. "With these kinds of threats against Taiwan I think we should be clear eyed, we should not be provoked."