Will the Black Hawk Crash Affect the Taiwan Election?

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] A Black Hawk helicopter crash that occurred about a week before Taiwan's presidential election (on the 11th) is being speculated to potentially influence the Taiwan election.

On the 3rd, China's Global Times reported on the crash of a Black Hawk (UH-60M) helicopter belonging to the Taiwanese military, which resulted in the deaths of the Chief of Staff and other top Taiwanese military officials, mentioning the possibility of an impact on the Taiwan election.

The newspaper criticized the incident as undermining the reliability of U.S.-made weapons and pointed out that Taiwan should no longer serve as a "cash machine" for U.S. defense contractors using taxpayers' money.

It also reminded that Taiwan spent 85 billion Taiwan dollars (2.83 billion USD) to purchase 60 UH-60M helicopters from the U.S. in 2008, and that this was not the first Black Hawk accident experienced. In February 2018, a helicopter of this model crashed three minutes after takeoff, killing six onboard.

The Global Times also mentioned the possibility that this Black Hawk crash could affect the Taiwan election. Due to the accident, it reported that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party candidate, President Tsai Ing-wen, suspended election campaigning for three days, and the opposition Kuomintang candidate, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu, suspended campaigning for two days.

Li Xiaobing, a Taiwan affairs expert at Nankai University in Tianjin, explained, "Strange incidents have always occurred before elections in Taiwan's history," adding, "Politicians are likely to use such accidents for public opinion manipulation or attacks on competitors, and such actions inevitably influence election outcomes."

The accident helicopter, which departed from Taipei Songshan Airport at 7:54 a.m. local time the previous day, lost contact after the last communication at 8:07 a.m. The helicopter was en route to the Dong'ao area in northeastern Taiwan to visit military personnel and reportedly made an emergency landing in the Wulai Mountain area of New Taipei. The accident resulted in the deaths of eight top Taiwanese military officials, including Chief of Staff Shen Yi-ming.

The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.