China has launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of major ports, attacking maritime targets, and fending off international “interference”, in what it calls a warning to “separatist” forces in Taiwan.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – the military wing of the ruling Communist party in China – said it had sent naval, air force and rocket forces to surround Taiwan on Monday morning. Chinese coast guard vessels were also sent out to conduct “law enforcement inspections” at sea around Taiwan’s outer islands.
The exercise, named Justice Mission 2025, was a “a stern warning against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and external interference forces”, said a spokesperson for the PLA’s eastern theatre command, Col Shi Yi.
“It is a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.”
On Monday morning Taiwan’s defence ministry accused Beijing of escalating tensions and undermining regional peace. It “strongly condemned” the activity, saying it dispatched “appropriate forces” to respond and conduct counter combat-readiness exercises of its own.
“Defending democracy and freedom is no provocation, and the existence of the Republic of China [Taiwan’s formal name] is not an excuse for aggressors to disrupt the status quo,” the ministry said.
Taiwan’s coast guard said the scope of the drill “poses a significant threat to the navigational safety of vessels in Taiwan’s waters and to the operational rights of fishermen”.
Beijing claims Taiwan is a Chinese province and is preparing to annex it. It is undergoing a massive military modernisation and expansion drive, with the aim of being capable of invasion by 2027, according to US intelligence from several years ago.
The Chinese Communist party (CCP) and its leader, Xi Jinping, have urged Taiwan to accept “peaceful reunification”, deploying a range of encouragements but mostly threats and coercive actions that have intensified in recent years. However, the vast majority of Taiwan’s parliament and people reject the prospect of CCP rule, and Taiwan is boosting its own military defences in resistance.
The PLA’s drills – its first targeting Taiwan since April – come amid weeks of spiralling relations with Japan after its prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said her country would likely become militarily involved if China attacked Taiwan. It also follows an approval by the US government for $11bn in weapons sales to Taiwan, and recent speeches by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, vowing to boost Taiwan’s defences and achieve a “high level of combat preparedness” by 2027.
All drew furious reaction from Beijing.
In a statement announcing the drills, China’s eastern theatre command said: “The vessels and aircraft will approach the Taiwan Island in close proximity from different directions to test the capabilities of the troops to conduct rapid manoeuvres, form all-dimensional posture, and execute systemic blockade and control.”
The announcement included stylised propaganda videos, and maps indicating air and maritime areas to avoid, in three large zones around the southern point of Taiwan, and two to its north and north-west.
The PLA said it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers, drones, and long range missiles, testing “capabilities of sea-air coordination and of precise target hunting and neutralisation”, including attacks on submarines and other maritime targets.
A propaganda poster depicted flaming arrows shot from China to Taiwan’s main island, piercing green bugs thought to represent what Beijing terms separatist forces, while a foreign warship “flee[s] upon witnessing this scene”, the state media tabloid, the Global Times said.
The scale of the drills likely won’t be clear until they are over, but analysts noted the designated areas were larger and some were closer to Taiwan’s main island than usual. It was also thought to be the first time the PLA had explicitly said they were practising deterring international involvement. Also unusually, a number of PLA aircraft remained visible on radar platforms.
“That is a signal that the PLA is building up their anti-access/area denial capabilities, and publicly declaring it,” said William Yang, senior north-east Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group.
Justice Mission 2025 is the sixth major PLA military exercise targeting Taiwan since it launched major exercises in 2022 in retaliation for the then US speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island. In April it held a two-day operation dubbed Strait Thunder-2025A, prompting speculation there would be a “B” before year’s end.
Taiwanese national security officials have been warning of the likelihood of large-scale drills as part of its pressure campaign against Tokyo following Takaichi’s remarks, said Yang. Yang also noted it was the second major exercise during the second term of the US president, Donald Trump, who met with Xi in October but didn’t discuss Taiwan.
Yang said: “Beijing will likely take into account the response from the US [to these drills] and carefully determine how it should formulate and plan the PLA’s military operation.”
Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu
