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China has launched a new round of military drills around Taiwan, as it warned “independence” forces following Taipei’s largest-ever weapons procurement deal with the US.
The joint Chinese military drills will involve army, navy, air force and rocket force operating in the Taiwan Strait as well as in areas to the north, south-west, south-east and east of Taiwan, according to a statement issued by the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command on Monday.
The “Justice Mission 2025” exercises will include testing PLA combat readiness for maritime and air combat, as well as blockades of ports and strategic areas, establishing battlefield control and deterring external forces, the statement said.
“This serves as a serious warning to Taiwan independence separatist forces and external interference forces,” said Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the command. “It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and safeguard national unity.”
The drills will involve live-fire exercises on Tuesday, and ships and aircraft were warned to avoid nearby sea and airspace, the PLA said.
$11.1bn
Value of latest US arms sale to Taiwan
China’s military activity around Taiwan has become increasingly assertive following a visit in 2022 by then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to take control if Taipei resists its pressure indefinitely.
Earlier this month, the US approved a $11.1bn arms sale to Taiwan, the largest package of its kind, as Taipei makes efforts to strengthen its defence capabilities against Chinese threats.
In a mostly symbolic response to the arms sale, Beijing this week announced sanctions against 20 US military-related companies and their staff.
Heightened tensions over Taiwan threaten to complicate a fragile thaw in US-China relations, coming less than two months after presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed a truce in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The drills also come amid a bitter diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo, after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested last month that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could represent an “existential threat”, triggering a military response from Tokyo.
Taiwan’s presidential office spokesperson on Monday called on China to immediately stop “irresponsible and provocative actions”.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said that the country needed to “keep raising the difficulty” for China of a potential invasion. He reiterated the need for Taiwan to strengthen its domestic defences and invest in military capabilities, local media reported.
“Crossing the [Taiwan Strait] is itself a difficult challenge. When Russia invaded Ukraine, it simply drove tanks in directly,” Lai said.
In November, Lai pledged to spend about $40bn on weapons over the next eight years — Taiwan’s largest special defence budget in more than 30 years — as his administration aims to deter Beijing and signal to Trump Taipei’s clear determination to pay for its own defences.
The US state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the drills were the second large-scale exercises of their kind since Trump returned to the White House in January and would “test” his administration’s response.
Beijing is likely to “take into account the response from the US and carefully determine how it should formulate and plan the PLA’s military operations, including regular training and more tactical shows of force to pressure Taiwan”, Yang said.
He added that Beijing also probably saw an opportunity to help exacerbate domestic political turmoil in Taiwan and amplify opposition criticisms of Lai.
“The opposition parties have been accusing the Lai administration of heightening the risks of conflict with China because of his cross-strait policies and efforts to increase Taiwan’s defence budget,” Yang said.