TAIWAN was today forced to deny it had shot down a Chinese fighter jet after video emerged online showing the “wreckage of a burning plane.“ Multiple Twitter users had claimed a 1,600mph Sukhoi Su-35 was downed in the Chinese city of Guilin after “violating Taiwanese air space.” The shocking allegations come just weeks after it was […]
TAIWAN was today forced to deny it had shot down a Chinese fighter jet after video emerged online showing the “wreckage of a burning plane.“
Multiple Twitter users had claimed a 1,600mph Sukhoi Su-35 was downed in the Chinese city of Guilin after “violating Taiwanese air space.”
The shocking allegations come just weeks after it was reported Beijing was “gearing up” to invade the neighbouring island nation.
At the time, Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu claimed China was sending planes near the country on an almost daily basis.
According to the online claims, the military jet was shot down after it strayed into the Taiwan Strait – some 500 miles from the crash site.
Other reports claimed that a technical malfunction may have been to blame for the apparent crash.
China has not commented on the claims or the video – which shows a large fire next to a building and smoke nearby.
On one clip an onlooker can be heard saying: “A plane has fallen. A fighter jet.”
Another clip shows a man – which some believe to be the pilot – lying on a stretcher surrounded by locals.
The pilot suffered severe injuries, according to the unconfirmed online accounts.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence has labelled claims it shot down the jet as nothing more than “fake news”.
“The Air Force Command solemnly refutes that this is false information and completely untrue,” it said in a statement.
It then added it “strongly condemned” those spreading the “malicious” stories..
It said it would work “provide accurate information in a timely manner to prevent the spread of false information, and to avoid social unrest.”
China claims that Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy, should be part of its own territory and has long threatened to use force to bring it under its control.
Taiwan first broke away from mainland China in 1949, when former president Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters fled to the island following the Chinese Communist Party victory in the country’s civil war.
Chiang’s government continued to claim to be the legitimate representative of China, but since 1950 its jurisdiction has been limited to Taiwan and a number of smaller islands in the region.
Beijing cut ties with the islands government after the election President Tsai Ing-wen, a supporter of Taiwanese independence, in 2016, and has continued to seek to isolate it diplomatically while raising the military threat.
