Major interservice exercise around island delivers stern warning and message to separatists, external forces

The People’s Liberation Army, in concluding a large-scale, interservice exercise surrounding China’s island of Taiwan on Dec 29 and 30, has sent a clear warning to “Taiwan independence” separatists and external forces meddling in the Taiwan question.

In a statement, Senior Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the command, said the PLA Eastern Theater Command has completed “Justice Mission 2025” drills and tested its integrated joint operations capabilities.

The exercise, named “Justice Mission 2025”, began on the morning of Dec 29 and involved the command’s Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force units, and featured encirclement maneuvers and live-fire exercises.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command mobilized fighter jets, bombers, early-warning planes, drones, long-range rocket launchers, short-range ballistic missile launchers, amphibious landing craft, destroyers, and frigates. Troops and hardware carried out air and sea patrols, live-fire shelling, simulated precision strikes, air combat, anti-submarine maneuvers, and information support operations.

“The command will keep strengthening combat readiness with arduous training, resolutely thwart the attempts of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and external intervention, and firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Li said.

During the exercise, H-6K bombers simulated precision strikes against designated targets in Taiwan. On Dec 30 afternoon, a flotilla dispatched by the PLA Southern Theater Command, led by an amphibious assault ship worked with destroyers, frigates, and drones of the Eastern Theater Command to conduct drills including rapid landing and the seizure of key ports in the waters to the east of Taiwan. On the ground, two units equipped with long-range rocket systems executed live-fire drills, covering the waters to the north and south of Taiwan.

All these operations achieved desired effects, according to the Eastern Theater Command.

Zhang Han, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Dec 31 that the PLA’s military drills around Taiwan were a stern warning to both “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and foreign forces interfering in the region. She added the drills were both necessary and justified to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Zhang condemned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities for “their relentless pursuit of a ‘Taiwan independence’ agenda, their unprincipled courting of foreign powers, and their undermining of Taiwan’s own interests”. She reaffirmed the Chinese mainland’s resolve to counter any separatist actions and external interference.

DPP leader Lai Ching-te’s provocative and militaristic attempts to seek “independence” have come at the expense of Taiwan’s economic development and the well-being of its people, severely damaging cross-Strait relations and threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Zhang said.

Citing the DPP authorities’ false claims that the barriers to cross-Strait exchanges lie on the mainland, Zhang said it is the DPP’s obstinate separatist stance and collusion with external forces that are the root causes of instability in the Taiwan Strait. She described the DPP authorities as “destroyers of peace”, “manufacturers of crises”, and “instigators of war”.

Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said, “The Lai Ching-te administration (of the Taiwan region), by unreservedly catering to and aligning with external forces, recklessly provokes with its pursuit of ‘independence’, becoming the root cause of disruption to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the source of escalating tensions.”

Meng Xiangqing, a professor at PLA National Defense University, said that, based on the exercise map released by the PLA Eastern Theater Command, the Dec 29 drill areas were closer to Taiwan than the 2022 encirclement drills conducted after then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

“The encirclement chain has been tightened, closer and closer, and it underscores the features of full coverage, no blind spots, and an integrated blockade-and-strike approach,” he said.

Zhang Chi, a professor at the PLA National Defense University, said the Dec 30 drills demonstrated that the PLA possesses formidable capabilities to cut off the lifeline of energy and resource imports for Taiwan authorities at any time, thereby destroying their 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 added.

Regarding concerns raised by countries such as Japan, Australia and some European countries over the drills, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Dec 31 that China has already lodged serious diplomatic representations.

“This is a blatant distortion of right and wrong, highly hypocritical, and China firmly opposes it,” Lin said, emphasizing that the Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair and brooks no interference from any external forces.

Lin also expressed appreciation for countries and organizations that reaffirmed their adherence to the one-China principle, and supported China in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity following the announcement of countermeasures and the military exercises.

Recent media polls in Taiwan indicate that over half of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the Lai authorities.

The latest military action followed the United States’ announcement in December of a large-scale arms sale package, worth $11.1 billion, planned for Taiwan. It covers eight kinds of weapons, including HIMARS rocket systems, howitzers, anti-tank missiles, loitering munition drones, and parts for other equipment.

The “Justice Mission 2025” drills came soon after the US announcement of its largest arms sales to Taiwan in history, and against the backdrop of Washington’s recently released National Security Strategy, which once again elevated the “first island chain” to a position of central strategic importance, said Warwick Powell, an adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

“It is clear that the PLA is demonstrating its willingness and capacity to defend national sovereignty and in the process show that talk of the ‘first island chain’ is an outdated dogma,” Powell, who also served as a former policy adviser to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, said.

Instead of correcting its mistakes and returning to strict adherence to the one-China principle, the US again constituted a clear violation of the one-China principle by announcing the record $11.1 billion arms sales to Taiwan, noted Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization, Research and Development in Pakistan.

China is practicing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, “however, it does not mean that China can allow foreign interference in its internal matters and allow anyone to endanger its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said, adding that Western countries led by the US fail to recognize this.

“The exercise shows that no one can challenge or stop China from unifying Taiwan with the motherland,” he said.

Henry Chan, a visiting distinguished senior fellow at the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies, said the Taiwan question is strictly China’s internal affair and the drills reflect China’s firm position against separatism.

He said that China has been very consistent: every country that establishes diplomatic relations with China must subscribe to the one-China principle. The one-China principle also represents the broad consensus of the international community, and legally speaking, the Taiwan question is a strictly domestic issue.

Chan said the “Justice Mission 2025” exercise is a very deep-thought exercise. Within very short notice, China has demonstrated its ability to impose a 360-degree island blockade across a vast area, which indicates that China is well-prepared to respond at any time.

Song Ping and Yang Han in Hong Kong, Li Shangyi and Liu Jianqiao in Beijing contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn