Breaking: China Surrounds Taiwan in Live-Fire Drills

China launches live-fire drills encircling Taiwan, deploying multiple forces in PLA military exercises as tensions rise over sovereignty and regional security.

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Dec 29, 2025 - 11:42

Breaking: China Surrounds Taiwan in Live-Fire Drills

China has launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, which it says are a warning to "separatist" forces in Taiwan and to "external interference" from foreign parties.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) – the military wing of China's ruling Communist Party – said it deployed naval, air force, and rocket forces to encircle Taiwan on Monday morning. Chinese coast guard vessels were also sent to conduct "law enforcement inspections" in waters surrounding Taiwan.

Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA's Eastern Theatre Command, said the exercises, dubbed "Justice Mission 2025," were "a stern warning against 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces and external interfering forces."

"This is a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China's sovereignty and national unity."

On Monday morning, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense accused Beijing of escalating tensions and undermining regional peace. It "strongly condemned" the activity and said it had deployed "appropriate forces" to respond and conduct its own counter-preparedness exercises.

"Defending democracy and freedom is not a provocation, and the existence of the Republic of China [Taiwan's formal name] is not a pretext for aggressors to disrupt the status quo," the ministry said.

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Taiwan's Coast Guard said the scope of the exercises "poses a serious threat to the navigational safety of vessels in Taiwan's waters and the operational rights of fishermen."

Beijing claims Taiwan is a province of China and is preparing to take it by force. According to US intelligence several years ago, it is undergoing a massive military modernization and expansion campaign with the goal of being able to invade by 2027. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader Xi Jinping have urged Taiwan to accept "peaceful reunification," offering various incentives, but mostly resorting to threats and coercive actions that have intensified in recent years. However, Taiwan's parliament and a large segment of its population reject the prospect of CCP rule, and Taiwan is strengthening its military defenses in resistance.

These PLA exercises – the first targeting Taiwan since April – come amid weeks of deteriorating relations with Japan, after its Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said her country would likely become militarily involved if China attacked Taiwan. This also follows the US government's approval of an $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan and recent speeches by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, in which he pledged to strengthen Taiwan's defenses and achieve "a high level of combat readiness" by 2027.

All of this has drawn strong reactions from Beijing.

In a statement announcing the drills, China's Eastern Theater Command said: "Ships and aircraft will approach the Taiwan island from multiple directions to test the troops' capabilities for rapid maneuvering, multi-directional encirclement, and systematic blockade and control."

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The announcement included slick propaganda videos and maps indicating air and sea areas to be avoided in three large zones around the southern tip of Taiwan and two zones to its north and northwest.

The PLA said it deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers, drones, and long-range missiles, and tested "sea-air coordination and precision targeting and neutralization capabilities," including attacks on submarines and other maritime targets. The scale of the drills won't be clear until they conclude, but analysts noted that the designated areas were larger than usual and closer to Taiwan's main island. It was also believed to be the first time the PLA had explicitly stated that they were practicing to deter international intervention. Unusually, multiple PLA aircraft remained visible on radar platforms throughout the exercise.

"This is a signal that the PLA is building up its anti-access/area denial capabilities, and publicly announcing it," said William Yang, senior Northeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Justice Mission 2025 is the sixth major PLA military exercise targeting Taiwan since it launched large-scale drills in 2022 in response to then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island. In April, it conducted a two-day operation called Strait Thunder-2025A, leading to speculation that a "B" version would follow before the end of the year.

Yang said that Taiwanese national security officials had warned of the possibility of large-scale exercises as part of Beijing's pressure campaign against Tokyo following comments by Sanae Takaichi. Yang also noted that this was the second major exercise during US President Donald Trump's second term, who met with Xi Jinping in October but did not discuss Taiwan. Yang added: "Beijing will likely take into account the US reaction to these exercises and carefully consider how to prepare and plan future PLA military operations."

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