A rocket, a rocket or a satellite? Chinese flyover sows confusion in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense issued an urgent warning on Tuesday about a Chinese satellite launched over the island on a missile. An alarming message that interrupted the last days of the campaign before major elections and gave rise to accusations of a political ploy.

The alert was sent to mobile phones on the island of 23 million, where elections for the president and parliament will be held on Saturday. In English, the first alert warned of a missile overflight – an error quickly corrected by Taiwanese officials.

“It was a satellite, not a rocket,” President Tsai Ing-wen said during a campaign stop in the southern city of Kaohsiung. “Do not worry.”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense released a statement about an hour later apologizing for the error. But by then, the warning had created an uncomfortable scene for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

In Taipei, the capital, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu addressed dozens of reporters from the international press just before the warning. “We must remain responsible, we must remain moderate to avoid a conflict between Taiwan and China,” he said.

Moments later, cell phones buzzed and rang around the room, silencing questions with a message in English about a rocket, and in Mandarin about a rocket with a satellite on board.

Broadcast from Chinese state television video of the launch – one of many from a location well known to Taiwanese officials. But the text message alert suggested Beijing had escalated its harassment of the island ahead of a particularly tense Taiwanese election.

China has a long history of attacking Taiwan during major campaigns using threatening language, disinformation and other influence operations to push voters away from the DPP, which Beijing sees as a party committed to Taiwanese independence.

In recent months, Chinese officials have framed the race as a choice between peace and war, suggesting that another DPP victory after eight years in power would increase the risk of conflict. And in the run-up to the vote, Taiwan has already spotted other flying objects: Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported several sightings of balloons floating towards Taiwan from China since last month, including a wave earlier this month.

But Tuesday’s warning seemed to raise a greater level of concern. When China launched rockets carrying satellites at least three times last year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense issued statements, not public cell phone warnings.

Government officials said Tuesday evening that the warning system was designed to warn civilians of missile firings, and that it was only used for the satellite-equipped missile because it veered off course into the skies above the atmosphere of southern Taiwan. In the haste of the moment, officials said they did not double-check the translation before sending out the emergency messages. The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the president’s office did not participate in the decision-making on the warning.

However, with just days to go before the election, the mistake caused an uproar among voters and rival parties.

The leading opposition party – the National Party, Kuomintang or KMT – came up with its own swift response.

“I think the Defense Ministry is trying to mislead the public by issuing such a warning,” said Eric Chu, chairman of the KMT.

Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang, an adviser to the Opposition Nationalist Party who teaches at Tamkang University in Taiwan, cursed when he saw the alert on his phone during an interview at a party-affiliated think tank.

“It’s all part of the campaign,” he said.

The DPP did not immediately respond to suggestions that this was a political tactic, but tried to distance itself from the move. Vincent Chao, a spokesman for DPP presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te, said the Defense Department should respond and explain how the misleading translation came about.

James Yifan Chen, an assistant professor of international relations at Tamkang University who advises KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih and who studies Beijing’s military and security policies, said the warning might not have been justified even if the translation had been correct. .

China has launched dozens of satellites in the past year, he said, and about a quarter were on rockets flying near Taiwan — mostly south of the island or close to Okinawa. He said he saw nothing special about the latest launch that would have warranted the warning message.

“It was another regular mission for China to launch a satellite into space,” he said. “This time it was only new because the Ministry of Defense had issued two warnings to the Taiwanese people.”

Amy Chang Chien, John Liu And Chris Buckley reporting contributed.