Amid tensions with Japan, China on Monday announced that it has launched new drills around Taiwan Strait as part of a military exercise codenamed ‘Justice Mission 2025’, which involves coordinated participation by Chinese ground forces, air force, navy, missile units, and other branches of the military.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command is employing fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range rocket fires to conduct drills in the waters and airspace in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait on Monday,” the state-run news agency reported.
The drills intend to test the troops’ capabilities of precision strikes on key targets and focus on striking mobile ground targets, it said.
Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theatre Command, said that the exercise includes air and maritime patrols, simulated strikes against hostile targets, blockades of key ports and areas, and deterrence operations along the periphery of the battlefield.
Yi said the operation includes air and sea patrols, suppression of hostile forces, blockade of critical ports and zones, and battlefield periphery deterrence, besides the PLA aircraft and naval vessels conducting manoeuvres around Taiwan from multiple directions to assess rapid deployment and all-domain operational control.
China has been increasingly assertive of its control over Taiwan, which Beijing claims is a “sacred and inseparable part” of its territory.
The drills in which fighters, bombers, long range rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used comes in the backdrop of the US approving an arms package to Taipei valued at a record USD 11.1 billion, which China criticised, saying Washington “blatantly announced its plan to sell massive advanced weapons to China’s Taiwan region” and send a “gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces”.
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“China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun told a media briefing on December 18.
Diplomatic relations between Japan and China have worsened in the last month, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remarked in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan that may lead to action from the country’s defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China which demanded Takaichi to retract her statement, and also criticised Japan’s move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and airplanes.
“Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one’s doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas”, Guo said.
Meanwhile, Shi has warned that the drills are directed against “Taiwan independence” forces and what he described as external interference in the Taiwan issue, asserting that the operation is a necessary step to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity, as per a Chinese daily.
As a countermeasure to the arms deal, China also announced sanctions last week against 20 US defence-related companies and 10 senior executives.
Taiwan, on its part, has slammed China over their military exercise, describing the move as an “irrational provocation”, noting that the action by Beijing undermines “regional peace”.
“We strongly condemn the PRC’s irrational provocations and oppose the PLA’s actions that undermine regional peace. Rapid Response Exercises are underway, with forces on high alert to defend the Republic of China and protect our people,” the Taiwanese Minister of National Defence stated in a post on X.
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