Taiwan mistakenly issues missile alert

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s Defense Ministry mistranslated an alert into English on Tuesday, saying China had launched a missile instead of a satellite and urging caution days before the island’s elections.

Taiwan will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday that China has described as a choice between war and peace.

The bilingual alert sent to residents’ mobile phones cautioned in English that there was a missile flyover. The Defense Ministry later issued a statement apologizing to the public for the faulty English translation and clarifying that China had launched a rocket carrying a satellite — not a missile.

The ministry said the Chinese rocket flew over southern Taiwan at high altitude.

Chinese state media said the country launched a satellite called Einstein with a Long March 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China. Broadcaster CCTV said the satellite entered orbit and the launch was a success.

The alerts went off in the middle of an international news conference by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. He clarified that it was a satellite launch, told journalists not to worry and proceeded with the news conference.

Beijing views Taiwan, which is about 100 miles off China’s east coast, as a renegade province that must come under its control. China has repeatedly expressed its disdain for the front-runner in Taiwan’s presidential election, current Vice President William Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party, calling him “a destroyer of peace” and a separatist.