OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
3:15 PM – Monday, December 29, 2025
China launched large-scale military exercises, codenamed “Justice Mission 2025,” on Monday which reportedly involving warships, fighter jets, bombers, drones, long-range missiles and live-fire drills in zones designed to encircle Taiwan and simulate blockades of key ports.
The move, ramping up regional pressures, has been described as China’s most extensive war games around Taiwan to date, with deployments across multiple maritime and airspace zones surrounding the island.
The multi-service exercises mobilized the PLA’s naval, air, and rocket forces to conduct high-intensity drills surrounding Taiwan. The maneuvers focused on integrated strikes against land and maritime targets while rehearsing a systematic blockade of the island’s primary deep-water ports.
Taiwan’s aviation authorities say that more than ~100,000 international air travelers would be affected by over 1,000 flight cancellations or diversions, pushing them to label the Chinese communist government as “the biggest destroyer of peace.”
“The Chinese Communist Party’s targeted military exercises further confirm its nature as an aggressor and the biggest destroyer of peace,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reports, adding that Taiwan forces are on high alert.
China’s military encirclement of Taiwan serves as a direct retaliation to the record $11.1 billion U.S. arms package recently approved for the island. A cornerstone of the deal is the acquisition of 82 mobile rocket launchers equipped with 420 long-range precision-guided missiles, providing Taiwan with a critical deep-strike capability across the Strait. The procurement also spans 60 self-propelled howitzers, advanced UAV systems, integrated military software, and a robust suite of anti-armor weaponry.
While the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act mandates that the U.S. provide Taiwan with the resources for its own defense, it stops short of requiring a direct American military intervention.
However, Japan has recently moved toward a more assertive stance.
On November 7th, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared that a Chinese naval blockade or similar aggression against Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation.”
“If it involves the use of warships and military actions, it could by all means become a survival-threatening situation,” she said at the time.
China’s military did not comment on the United States or Japan in its statements on Monday. However, Beijing’s foreign ministry accused Taiwan’s ruling party of attempting to seek independence through requesting military support from the United States. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated that the massive $11.1 billion arms purchase was turning Taiwan into a “powder keg” and an “ammunition depot.”
“The ‘Taiwan independence’ forces on the island seek independence through force and resist reunification through force, squandering the hard-earned money of the people to purchase weapons at the cost of turning Taiwan into a powder keg,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
“This cannot save the doomed fate of ‘Taiwan independence’ but will only accelerate the push of the Taiwan Strait toward a dangerous situation of military confrontation and war. The U.S. support for ‘Taiwan Independence’ through arms will only end up backfiring. Using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed.”
The Chinese military has made daily incursions near Taiwan a routine reality, steadily expanding the scale of its operations over the last three years. With the launch of Justice Mission 2025, Beijing has now conducted its sixth major island-encircling drill since 2022.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported that “89 Chinese aircraft, 14 naval vessels and 1 coast guard ship” were seen operating around the island, with several more ships located farther out in the Western Pacific. Chinese vessels were also engaged in close stand-offs with Taiwanese ships near the island’s contiguous zone, about 24 miles from shore, they added.
“Conducting live-fire exercises around the Taiwan Strait … would not only constitute military pressure on us, but could also pose more complex challenges and impacts for the international community and neighboring countries,” Hsieh Jih-sheng, Taiwan’s deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence, told reporters.
Taiwan’s military is reportedly prepared to conduct rapid response exercises if the drills are escalated.
China was reported to be releasing propaganda videos and posters alongside the drills, including videos depicting automated humanoid robots, swarms of drones, and weaponized robot dogs with machine guns shooting at the island, as well as imagery appearing to show civilian boats that could support an amphibious assault.
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