China’s military exercises with live ammunition

The Chinese military maneuvers launched this Monday, under the name Justice Mission 2025they search show a “tightening of the siege” on the island and reinforce strategic pressure on Taipei in response to the reinforcement of US military support for Taiwan, according to the analysis of Chinese military experts cited by state press.

The exercises cover five areas located in the Taiwan Strait and in spaces to the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island, in an operation that involves forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force.

In an image released by the Eastern Theater Command itself, the exercise areas are represented as several rectangles surrounding the island, an arrangement that, according to the official statement, reflects un “multidirectional” deployment of forces with simultaneous approaches from different points.

China’s military maneuvers around Taiwan included attacks against sea and land targets, anti-submarine operations and exercises to achieve “regional air superiority,” military sources reported.

In a first statement, the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA, Chinese Army) indicated that there were used fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles, in coordination with long-range artillery, to carry out attack drills against “mobile ground targets” in the central areas of the Taiwan Strait.

This Command, in charge of Chinese military operations around the island, also reported that same day that it had used destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and drones for training in the waters and airspace to the north and southwest of the self-governed territory.

“The training focuses on hunting and neutralizing targets in waters and airspace, simulated attacks against land targets and live fire against targets in water,” the PLA noted through its official Weibo account – similar to X, censored in China -.

In a third phase, the Command announced that it had undertaken maneuvers with warships and aircraft in the waters and airspace of eastern Taiwanfocused on “assaulting maritime targets, seizing regional air superiority, as well as submarine hunting and anti-submarine operations.”

“The exercises tested the capabilities of air-sea coordination and precise search, identification and neutralization of targets,” the statement said.

Coast Guard

For its part, the China Coast Guard announced this Monday the start of “comprehensive law enforcement” patrols in waters near Taiwan and around the Matsu and Wuqiu archipelagos, close to the Chinese coast but controlled by Taipei.

In a statement posted on its official account on the WeChat social network, a spokesperson for the Chinese Coast Guard noted that, as of December 29, the coast guards of the Chinese province of Fujian, located opposite Taiwan, have deployed ship formations in maritime areas adjacent to the aforementioned places.

According to spokesman Zhu Anqing, the operation constitutes a “practical measure” to “exercise jurisdiction” in accordance with the “one China” principle, defended by Beijing, over Taiwan and its adjacent islands.

These maneuvers are part of the operation called ‘Mission Justice-2025’, announced this Monday by the Chinese authorities, who defined it as an action aimed at “issue a serious warning” to Taiwanese independence forces and foreign powers which, in Beijing’s opinion, interfere in the Taiwan question.

The maneuvers are organized in a context marked in recent weeks by the reinforcement of US military support for Taipei and by the deterioration of relations between China and Japan following statements by the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, about the possible intervention of Japanese forces in a conflict around Taiwan, words that infuriated Beijing.

Taiwan has been governed autonomously since 1949, but Beijing considers the island an “inalienable part” of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve reunification, a position rejected by the Taipei government.