A handout photo made available by the US Navy shows a sailor assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 preparing material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, 10 February 2023 (issued 14 February 2023). At the direction of the President of the United States and with the full support of the Government of Canada, U.S. fighter aircraft under U.S. Northern Command authority engaged and brought down a high-altitude balloon within sovereign U.S. airspace and over U.S. territorial waters, according to the US Navy. EPA-EFE/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan Seelbach Released Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has complained of increased harassment by Beijing's armed forces over the past three years, including fighter jets flying near the island and drones buzzing offshore islets.
Taiwan's army said that late Thursday morning its forces on Dongyin island, part of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago off the coast of China's Fuzhou, observed an unknown object falling from the sky, then found the remnants of a balloon on a shooting range.
The sphere is about 1 metre in diameter with an instrument box marked with simplified Chinese characters - which are used in China but not Taiwan - and the wording "Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co., Ltd.", "GTS13 digital datmospheric sounding instrument" and "meteorological instrument", the army said.
Taiyuan is a major city in northern China. Reuters was not immediately able to locate contacts for the factory.
"The preliminary investigation determined that the remains were of a meteorological detecting instrument, which have been collected by the relevant departments for further evaluation," Taiwan's army said in a short statement.
Taiwan's defence ministry said on Tuesday it had not spotted any surveillance balloons from China in its vicinity, as a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons triggers worries about rising military tensions.
Dongyin sits at the top of the Taiwan Strait on an important passage for any southbound Chinese forces from the eastern province of Zhejiang if they attack Taiwan, and the island is well defended.
Last year, Taiwan said a small, propeller-driven Chinese aircraft flew very close to Dongyin in what the government said they suspected was China deploying a civilian aircraft to test the responses of the Taiwanese military.
China also deployed drones to buzz Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast last August when Beijing staged war games near Taiwan, which only ended after Taiwanese forces shot one down.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Hugh Lawson)