Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Cheng Li-wun, chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s largest Ppposition party, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on April 10, 2026, in this screengrab from a video provided by CTI. Photo: CTI via REUTERS TV

For a second day, China’s military on Tuesday (December 30, 2025) dispatched air, navy and missile units to conduct joint live-fire drills around the island of Taiwan, which Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces.

Taiwan said it was placing forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.”

Taiwan’s aviation authority said more than 1,00,000 international air travelers would be affected by flight cancellations or diversions.

The two days of drills — dubbed “Justice Mission 2025” — came after Beijing expressed outrage at what could be the largest-ever U.S. arms sale to the self-ruled territory, and at a statement by Japan’s Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China takes action against Taiwan. China says Taiwan must come under its rule.

China’s military did not mention the United States and Japan in its statement on Monday (December 29), but Beijing’s foreign ministry accused Taiwan’s ruling party of trying to seek independence through requesting U.S. support.

And on Tuesday (December 30) morning, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted a government spokesperson saying that any efforts to that end would be “doomed.”

“We urge relevant countries to abandon the illusion of using Taiwan to contain China, and to refrain from challenging China’s resolve in safeguarding its core interests,” said Zhang Xiaogang of China’s Defense Ministry.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said rapid response exercises were underway, with forces on high alert. “The Chinese Communist Party’s targeted military exercises further confirm its nature as an aggressor and the biggest destroyer of peace,” it said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday (December 29) that he was not informed of the military exercise in advance but that he was not worried because China has been “doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area.”

Touting his “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr. Trump suggested he didn’t think Xi was going to attack Taiwan.

Drills are not uncommon

Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a near-daily basis, and in recent years it has stepped up the scope and scale of the exercises.

Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said the drills would be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island.

Mr. Shi said activities would focus on sea-air combat readiness patrol, “joint seizure of comprehensive superiority” and blockades on key ports. It was the first large-scale military drill where the command publicly mentioned one goal was “all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain.”

“It is a stern warning against Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and external interference forces, and it is a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity,” he added.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when a civil war brought the Communist Party to power in Beijing. Defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan. The island has operated since then with its own government, though the mainland’s government claims it as sovereign territory.

Capabilities are tested

China’s command on Monday (December 29) deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles, alongside long-range rockets, to the north and southwest of the Taiwan Strait. It carried out live-fire exercises against targets in the waters. Among other training, drills to test the capabilities of sea-air coordination and precise target hunting were conducted in the waters and airspace to the east of the strait.

Hsieh Jih-sheng, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence of the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, said that as of 3 p.m. Monday, 89 aircraft and drones were operating around the strait, with 67 of them entering the “response zone” — airspace under the force’s monitoring and response. The ministry detected 14 navy ships around the strait and four other warships in the Western Pacific, in addition to 14 coast guard vessels.

“Conducting live-fire exercises around the Taiwan Strait … does not only mean military pressure on us. It may bring more complex impact and challenges to the international community and neighboring countries,” Mr. Hsieh told reporters.

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said Chinese authorities had issued a notice saying seven temporary dangerous zones would be set up around the strait to carry out rocket-firing exercises from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., barring aircraft from entering them.

The Taiwanese aviation authority said more than 850 international flights were initially scheduled during that period and the drills would affect over 100,000 travelers. Over 80 domestic flights, involving around 6,000 passengers, were also canceled, it added.

Commercial airlines began to announce dozens of cancellations and delays for domestic routes across Taiwan, particularly ones along islands near China.

The Chinese command released themed posters about the drills online accompanied by provocative wording. One depicted two shields with the Great Wall alongside three military aircraft and two ships. Its social media post said the drills were about the “Shield of Justice, Smashing Illusion,” adding that any foreign interlopers or separatists touching the shields would be eliminated.

Last week, Beijing imposed sanctions against 20 U.S. defense-related companies and 10 executives, a week after Washington announced large-scale arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion. It still requires approval by the U.S. Congress.

Under U.S. federal law in place for many years, Washington is obligated to assist Taipei with its defense, a point that has become increasingly contentious with China. The U.S. and Taiwan had formal diplomatic relations until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter’s administration recognized and established relations with Beijing.

Taiwanese army on high alert

Karen Kuo, spokesperson for the Taiwanese president’s office, said the drills were undermining the stability and security of the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region and openly challenging international law and order.

“Our country strongly condemns the Chinese authorities for disregarding international norms and using military intimidation to threaten neighboring countries.” she said.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry released a video that featured its weapons and forces in a show of resilience. Multiple French Mirage-2000 aircraft conducted landings at an air force base.

In October, the Taiwanese government said it would accelerate the building of a “Taiwan Shield” or “T-Dome” air defense system in the face of the military threat from China.

The military tensions came a day after Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an said he hoped the Taiwan Strait would be associated with peace and prosperity, instead of “crashing waves and howling winds,” during a trip to Shanghai.

Washington DC:

China’s naval deployments in the East China Sea and South China Sea are elevated but consistent with other large exercises in the past, a U.S. military official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The assessment contrasted with statements from Taiwan that described the deployments as the largest in nearly three decades.

“The PRC military activity is elevated in the region, consistent with levels we have seen during other large exercises,” the official said, using the country’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

China’s military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory over the island’s rejection, had been expected to launch drills to express its anger at President Lai Ching-te’s tour of the Pacific that ended on Friday, which included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam.

But the U.S. official did not link the deployments to Lai’s travels.

“We do not see the activity in the East China Sea and South China Sea as a response to President Lai’s transit,” the official said.

“This activity is part of a broader increase in the PLA’s military posture and military exercises over the last several years. These activities are destabilizing and risk escalation.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

China will take “countermeasures” to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the government said, lambasting a $2 billion arms sale package by the United States to Taiwan.

The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, to the constant anger of Beijing.

On Friday, the Pentagon said the United States had approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defence missile system battle-tested in Ukraine.

In a statement late Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said it strongly condemns and firmly opposes the sales and has lodged “solemn representations” with the United States.

China urges the United States to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop its dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, it added.

“China will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

China has over the past five years stepped up its military activities around democratically governed Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, including staging a new round of war games earlier this month.

Taiwan’s government has welcomed the new arms sale, the 17th of the Biden administration to the island.

“In the face of China’s threats, Taiwan is duty-bound to protect its homeland, and will continue to demonstrate its determination to defend itself,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said, responding to the arms sale.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Taipei:

Taipei said Wednesday it had detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing towards waters separating Taiwan and China, a day after Beijing held a live-fire exercise near the self-ruled island.

China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has ramped up military activity around the island in recent years to pressure Taipei into accepting its claims of sovereignty.

The Liaoning aircraft carrier group was spotted overnight in waters near the Taipei-administered Pratas Islands, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Taiwan, and heading north towards the sensitive Taiwan Strait.  

Chinese navy vessels “led by the aircraft carrier Liaoning, sailed through waters near Dongsha (the Pratas Islands) and continued northward toward the Taiwan Strait,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement on the social media platform X.

Taiwan’s military “monitored the situation and responded accordingly”, the ministry said.

The Liaoning took part in China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan last week that were condemned by Taipei and its key backer Washington.

China sent a record number of fighter jets as well as warships to encircle Taiwan in what Beijing said was a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.

That was followed by an announcement that China would hold a live-fire exercise on Tuesday in an area about 105 kilometres from Taiwan.

Over the weekend, a US and a Canadian warship passed through the 180-kilometre Taiwan Strait, part of regular passages by Washington and its allies meant to reinforce its status as an international waterway.

Beijing condemned the passage as disrupting “peace and stability” in the strait.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of China’s President Xi Jinping.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China’s President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to a province facing Taiwan following military exercises that mobilised China’s navy, air force, missile force and land troops to simulate a blockade of the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory and threatens to annex by force.

Mr. Xi did not comment on the military exercises during his visit to Fujian province, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, but his visit came on the heels of China’s dispatch of a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday.

Mr. Xi has largely avoided public appearances and foreign travel over the past year, but bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s control remains a priority for his administration as head of the ruling Communist Party and its military, the People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan’s newly elected president Lai Ching-te has been vociferously criticized by Beijing for rejecting its position that Tawian is a part of China.

The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.”

Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power.

Taiwan’s Coast Guard arrested the Chinese man on June 9 after his boat collided with vessels in the Tamsui River. File photo
| Photo Credit: AFP

A former Chinese naval captain arrested for illegally entering Taiwan by boat was formally charged on Wednesday, but prosecutors said “no military or national security involvement” was linked to his act.

The man, surnamed Ruan, was picked up by Taiwan’s coast guard in June after his vessel collided with other boats on the Tamsui River.

Officials said he was one of 18 purported defectors from China seen over the past year or so.

They all claimed to admire Taiwan’s “democratic way of life”, authorities said, who also warned they could not rule out the possibility the incursions were a test of the island’s defences by China.

Mr. Ruan, 60, reportedly told coast guard officers that he wanted to “defect”. The Shilin District Prosecutors Office on Wednesday charged him with violating a law governing relations with China and also for entering Taiwan without permission.

China has in recent years ramped up military and political pressures on the island, while Beijing has severed all top-level communications since 2016.

Taipei:

China ended two days of war games around Taiwan in which it simulated attacks with bombers and practiced boarding ships, exercises that Taiwan condemned as “blatant provocation” on Saturday, detailing a surge of Chinese warplanes and warships.

Chinese state television’s military channel said late on Friday the drills had concluded. A commentary in the official People’s Liberation Army Daily said they had lasted for two days from Thursday to Friday, as previously announced.

China’s defence ministry did not answer calls seeking comment on Saturday.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, launched the “Joint Sword – 2024A” exercises three days after Lai Ching-te became Taiwan’s president, a man Beijing calls a “separatist”.

Beijing said the exercises were “punishment” for Lai’s Monday inauguration speech, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate to each other”, which China viewed as a declaration the two are separate countries.

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. Taiwan’s government has condemned the drills, saying it will not be cowed by Chinese pressure.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 62 Chinese military aircraft and 27 navy ships on Friday, including 46 planes that crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides.

Chinese aircraft, including advanced Su-30 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, flew in the strait as well as into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, the ministry said.

On Friday it published footage taken by Taiwanese air force planes of a Chinese J-16 fighter and an H-6 but did not say exactly where it was taken.

Taiwan’s presidential office on Saturday that China’s military moves had undermined the peaceful and stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

They “also constitute a blatant provocation to the international order, and have aroused serious concern and condemnation from the international community”, it said in a statement.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, whose forces carried out the drills, released a video on its social media accounts on Saturday called “A six-word rhyme on smashing independence”, set to stirring martial music.

The words “advance, surround, lock-down, attack, destroy and cut-off” flash up over footage of fighters, bombers, soldiers and animated mock missile attacks on Taiwan.

China has over the past four years regularly staged military activities around Taiwan, including large-scale war games in 2022 and in 2023.

However, senior Taiwan lawmaker Wang Ting-yu from Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party said the latest drills appeared to be more about China making a noise than upping the ante, given it had to respond to Lai’s speech.

“They were comparatively more restrained than previous ones,” Wang, who chairs parliament’s defence and foreign affairs committee, said on social media.

Still, China has kept up a barrage of invective against Lai.

The People’s Liberation Army Daily commentary, published as “the voice of the military”, said Lai was determined to act as a “pawn” for external forces to curb China’s development.

“If Taiwan independence separatist forces insist on going their own way or even take risks, the PLA will obey orders and take decisive action to resolutely smash all separatist plots,” it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

China on Thursday morning began two days of military drills around Taiwan, surrounding the island with navy vessels and aircraft as “strong punishment” for “separatist acts”, state media reported.

The military exercise comes three days after Lai Ching-te was sworn in as the self-ruled island’s new president.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has branded Lai a “dangerous separatist” who will bring “war and decline” to the island.

China, which split with Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949, regards the island as a renegade province with which it must eventually be reunified, and has refused to rule out using military force to do so.

Relations have plunged in recent years as China has stepped up pressure on the democratic island, periodically stoking worries about a potential invasion.

Thursday and Friday’s drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, will “focus on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets”, Xinhua reported.

“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) started joint military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan from 7:45 a.m. Thursday (2345 GMT),” the news agency said, adding the drills were being conducted in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of the island.

The drills will also take place around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, Xinhua said.

The news agency reported military spokesman Li Xi as saying the exercises “involve the patrol of vessels and planes closing in on areas around the island of Taiwan and integrated operations inside and outside the island chain to test the joint real combat capabilities of the forces of the command”.

The spokesperson said the drills would also serve as a “strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces”, Xinhua said.

– ‘Real combat conditions’ –

The last time China announced similar military exercises around Taiwan was in August last year after Lai, then vice president, stopped over in the United States on a visit to Paraguay.

Those drills also tested the PLA’s ability “to seize control of air and sea spaces” and fight “in real combat conditions”, according to state media.

Beijing at the time described them as a “stern warning”.

They followed on the heels of April drills that simulated the encirclement of the island, triggered after Lai’s predecessor Tsai Ing-wen met then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

China also launched major military exercises in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan.

The country also held drills when then-president Tsai later transited through the United States.

World powers are keen to see as much stability as possible between China and Taiwan, not least because of the vital role the island plays in the global economy.

The Taiwan Strait is one of the world’s most important maritime trade arteries, and the island itself is a major tech manufacturer, particularly of vital semiconductors — the tiny chips used in everything from smartphones to missile systems.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)