The ministry, in its regular morning update on Chinese military activities over the previous 24 hours, said the single balloon was detected at 6:21 p.m. (1021 GMT) on Sunday 60 nautical miles (111 km) to the north of Taiwan's Keelung port.

Taiwan said Monday it had detected a Chinese balloon over waters northwest of the island, the first reported since April, as Beijing maintains pressure on Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty. Communist China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.

Taiwan announced on Monday that it had detected a Chinese balloon, thought to possibly contain spying equipment, floating northwest of the self-ruled island.