Taiwan, China Trade Barbs Over Island Drone Incursions

Taipei and Beijing have traded barbs over a recent string of drone sorties that have flown from the Chinese mainland to an outlying Taiwanese island, some surveilling military outposts. Photos and video taken by Chinese drones of the Kinmen islands have been circulating on both Taiwan and Chinese social media, with one video showing Taiwanese soldiers hurling rocks at one to drive it off. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said it was not "anything worth making a fuss about" as the drones were "flying around Chinese territory" when asked to comment on the videos on Monday. But that response triggered an angry riposte from Taipei which compared the drone harassment to the acts of a "thief". "Those who come uninvited are called thieves, whether they are breaking through the door or peeping from the air, the people of Taiwan do not welcome such thieves," Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement late Monday. "The authoritarian expansionist government of the Chinese Communist Party has always made harassing other countries a daily routine, and therefore its title of a'regional troublemaker' is well-deserved."