TAIPEI: An unsupervised Taiwanese naval officer who decided to experiment with a missile launcher and accidentally fired towards China was one of three people charged on Monday over the fatal incident. The Hsiung-feng III (Brave wind) missile hit a Taiwanese trawler, killing the skipper on board and injuring three other crew members. The misfire—the biggest military slip-up since Beijing-skeptic Tsai came to power in May—sparked an uproar in Taiwan and drew a stern rebuke from China. The mainland is the biggest military threat to self-ruling Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province to be reunified. China launched some of the missiles into waters off Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 in an attempt to deter voters in the island’s first democratic presidential elections.

Source: Manila Times August 29, 2016 11:48 UTC