Taiwan : China continues its “Justice Mission 2025” exercises surrounding and demonstrates its capacity to impose a combined blockade

Taiwan : In what it called a demonstration of joint operational and blockade capabilities, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command continued its “Justice Mission 2025” military exercises around Taiwan Island for a second day in a row on December 30. The exercises involved ground, air, and naval forces.

In order to conduct exercises centered on identification, warning, and expulsion, strikes on hostile vessels, fleet air defense, and anti-submarine warfare in airspace and waters to the north and south of Taiwan, destroyers, frigates, fighters, and bombers were deployed early in the morning, according to information made public by the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

H-6K bombers performed precise attacks against specific targets in Taiwan during the drills. The purpose of the exercises was to evaluate the forces’ capacity to carry out coordinated actions and impose a blockade in the area.

A flotilla from the PLA Southern Theater Command, under the command of an amphibious assault ship, coordinated combined maneuvers with destroyers, frigates, and drones from the Eastern Theater Command on Tuesday afternoon. These included swift landings and the capture of important ports in Taiwan’s eastern seas.

On land, two soldier units covered Taiwan’s north and south waterways in live-fire exercises using long-range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. According to the PLA Eastern Theater Command, every action produced the desired outcomes.

Zhang Chi, a professor at PLA National Defense University, commented on the drills, saying they demonstrated the PLA’s capacity to shut off resource and energy supply lines to Taiwan authorities at any moment. He said that such capabilities might threaten what he called a separatist agenda. “The PLA can strike whenever it chooses to strike, and its firepower package can be delivered right to where the separatists are,” he said.

According to a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, the exercises were designed to dissuade the island’s separatist groups, which Beijing claims are attempting to gain “Taiwan independence” by enhancing their military might via the acquisition of US weapons.

The drills, according to the spokesman, were intended to emphasize the implications for “provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and warmongers” who were “turning Taiwan into a powder keg”.

China said the exercises emphasize a red line that must not be crossed and reaffirmed that the Taiwan issue is important to its basic interests. Beijing cautioned that arming what it refers to as separatist groups in an attempt to restrict China would only intensify hostilities.