Taiwanese Twitter users on Friday morning reported that a “Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army Sukhoi Su-35 fighter plane crashed in Guangxi,” an autonomous coastal region in southern China, bordering Vietnam, after intruding over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. The pilot was seriously injured.
According to these reports, Taiwan’s air defense system shot down the plane. Taiwan’s ministry of defense said the reports claiming it shot down a Chinese plane are not true.
— Cheng Kaifu (@Taihoku1895)
Nicola Smith, Asia correspondent at The Telegraph, wrote that “Taiwan’s ministry of defence has responded categorically that this is fake news.”
Lots of speculation coming from Indian Twitter accounts claiming that shot down a PLA jet. Taiwan’s ministry of defence has responded categorically that this is fake news.
— Nicola Smith (@niccijsmith)
Below is the original press statement from Taiwan’s ministry of defence. Only in Chinese for now, but says it “solemnly refutes” the internet reports that Taiwan shot down a PLAAF SU-35 and “strongly condemns” the dissemination of fake information 1/
— Nicola Smith (@niccijsmith)
國防部空軍司令部新聞稿
時間:109年9月4日1730時針對網路流傳「臺灣擊落一架中共SU-35飛機?」乙情，空軍司令部今(4)日鄭重駁斥，此為假訊息，子虛烏有，完全不是事實。
2/
— Nicola Smith (@niccijsmith)
In November 2015, China and Russia signed a contract worth $2 billion to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the first export deal for the Russian warplane.
In March 2019, it was reported that Egypt is planning to purchase “more than two dozen” Su-35s from Russia in a deal also worth about $2 billion. Deliveries were expected to begin in 2020 or 2021.
Taiwan is a major investor in the autonomous region of Guangxi, with more than a thousand Taiwanese startups and close to $5 billion in exports. The cooperation between Guangxi and Taiwan is in manufacturing, high-tech electronic industries, agriculture, energy resources and tourism.
— Cheng Kaifu (@Taihoku1895)