Taiwan says Chinese drone made ‘provocative’ flight over South China Sea island

TAIPEI, Jan 17 (Reuters) – A Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea on Saturday, in what ‍Taiwan’s defence ministry called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, reports Chinese military activity around it on an almost daily basis, including drones though they very rarely enter Taiwanese airspace.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the Chinese reconnaissance drone was ‌detected around dawn on Saturday approaching the Pratas ‌Islands and flew in its airspace for eight minutes at an altitude outside the range of anti-aircraft weapons.

“After our side broadcast warnings on international channels, it departed at 0548,” it said in a statement.

“Such ​highly provocative and irresponsible actions by the People’s Liberation Army seriously undermine regional peace and stability, violated international legal ‍norms, and will inevitably be condemned,” it ​added.

Taiwan’s armed forces will continue to maintain strict ​vigilance and monitoring, and will respond in accordance with the routine ‍combat readiness rules, the ministry said.

Calls to China’s defence ministry outside of office hours on a weekend went unanswered.

In 2022, Taiwan’s military for the first time shot down an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off ‍the Chinese coast controlled by Taiwan.

Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable ‍to Chinese attack ‍due to their distance – more than 400 km (250 ​miles) – from mainland Taiwan.

The Pratas, an atoll which ​is ⁠also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly ‌defended by Taiwan’s military, but lie at a highly strategic location at the top end of the disputed South China Sea.

China also views the Pratas as its own territory.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Casey Hall in Shanghai; Editing ⁠by Jacqueline Wong)