China Launches Large-Scale Military Drills Around Taiwan; Taiwanese Forces on High Alert

China’s military has deployed units from its ground, naval, air, and artillery forces around Taiwan as it conducts a large-scale military exercise in the surrounding areas. This move triggered an immediate response from Taiwan’s armed forces, putting them on high alert.

China’s Eastern Theater Command announced that the exercise, named “Justice Mission 2025,” includes operational drills and live-fire exercises. According to an official statement, five zones around Taiwan will face naval and aerial restrictions for ten hours starting Tuesday morning.

The Chinese military stated that the drills involve fighters, bombers, drones, and long-range missiles, simulating coordinated attacks from multiple directions on moving ground targets. Chinese military officials emphasized that these maneuvers serve as a warning to Taiwan’s separatist forces and foreign actors.

This exercise marks the sixth round of China’s military drills around Taiwan since 2022 and takes place less than two weeks after the United States announced a new arms sale package to Taiwan—a move consistently viewed as sensitive by Beijing.

Taiwanese officials condemned the drills. A spokesperson for Taiwan’s autonomous regional leader warned that such actions increase the risk of miscalculations and threaten regional peace and stability.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reported that within the past 24 hours, two Chinese military aircraft and eleven ships were detected near the island, and Taiwanese forces remain at the highest readiness level. The ministry added that the military is prepared to conduct rapid reaction exercises for immediate troop deployments in case of any real attack.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media reported that the primary focus of these exercises is to blockade key Taiwanese ports, including Keelung in the north and Kaohsiung in the south—an approach more explicitly stated by Chinese officials compared to previous drills.