China sends message to Japan, U.S. with massive military drills encircling Taiwan

China’s military kicked off large-scale, end-of-the-year military drills around Taiwan on Monday, delivering warnings to Japan and the United States in addition to the self-ruled democratic island.

The military operations, as announced by the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command, involved joint troops from the army, navy, air force and rocket force in an exercise dubbed Justice Mission 2025.

The forces are engaged in an encirclement of the island, involving five areas, as the PLA stated, in sea-air combat readiness patrols, joint seizure activities, and practice blockades of key ports and other island zones.

At least 89 PLA warplanes and 28 warships were spotted during the first day of the exercises.

The PLA command released an unusual saber-rattling video featuring graphics that show large numbers of missile-firing drone aircraft, underwater and surface attack drones, and swarms of small attack drones all launching missiles or torpedoes against Taiwan.

Robot soldiers armed with rifles and small ground drones were also shown.

The latest military exercises were launched amid increased tensions with Japan over recent statements by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting that Tokyo would defend Taiwan from an attack and an $11 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan that Beijing denounced as aiding separatist forces.

President Trump, asked about the Chinese drills, said he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Mr. Xi “hasn’t told me anything about it.”

“I certainly have seen it,” he told reporters at the White House. “I don’t believe he’s going to be doing it,” he said in an apparent reference to a military assault.

Asked whether he is worried about the drills, the president said: “No. Nothing worries me.”

“They’ve been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area,” he said. “In fact, larger than they’re doing right now. So we’ll see.”

Mr. Trump and his administration have scaled back criticism of China in recent weeks as part of a campaign to reach a trade deal with Beijing. Neither the Pentagon nor the Indo-Pacific Command had immediate comments regarding the latest war games.

The U.S. leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Sam Paparo, said previously that large-scale Chinese military exercises near Taiwan are actually rehearsals for an invasion or blockade.

Video shown on Chinese state media included images of Type 054A frigates and Type 052D guided-missile destroyers approaching Taiwan from the north, southwest and east, with several ships visible off the eastern coast, as well as the outlying islands of Matsu and Wuqiu.

Aircraft images shown included J-20 stealth fighters and J-16 jets alongside KJ-500 early warning aircraft. For the first time since the PLA began conducting large-scale exercises in August 2022, the military said the exercise includes “all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain” — a reference to expected Japanese and U.S. military operations in response to a Chinese military assault.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian lashed out at the United States in commenting on the drills over recent U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

“External forces using Taiwan to contain China and arming Taiwan would only embolden ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and push the Taiwan Strait towards danger,” Mr. Lin said.

The PLA is dispatching bombers, amphibious assault ships and anti-ship missiles for the exercises, according to state media reports, noting expanded zones “inside and outside the island chain” that stretches from Japan through Taiwan and into the South China Sea.

The drills included live firing of weapons systems, reports stated.

The Chinese Communist Party-controlled Global Times said the latest exercises are aimed at “neutralizing the enemy at maximum range.”

“With vessels and aircraft approaching the Taiwan island in close proximity from different directions, troops of multiple services engage in joint assaults so as to test their joint operations capabilities,” said PLA Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesman for the command. “It is a stern warning against ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces, and it is a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.”

Taiwan’s government denounced the military exercises as China’s latest provocation.

“We strongly condemn the PRC’s irrational provocations and oppose the PLA’s actions that undermine regional peace,” the Defense Ministry stated on X. “Rapid Response Exercises are underway, with forces on high alert to defend the Republic of China and protect our people.”

The ministry released its own video showing U.S.-made F-16s taking off and warships patrolling the waters around Taiwan, along with anti-missile defenses being readied, in an effort to counter PLA information narratives on the exercises.

Taiwan said the Chinese Communist Party recently carried out various forms of military “harassment, disinformation, cognitive operations and other compound threats around Taiwan and in the Indo-Pacific region, escalating regional tensions.”

“This kind of ‘militaristic and bellicose, putting the cart before the horse’ threat is precisely the main cause of disrupting regional peace,” the ministry said on X. “Defending democratic freedom is not provocation, and the existence of the Republic of China is not an excuse for aggressors to destroy the status quo.”

“The CCP’s targeted military exercise this time further confirms its nature as an aggressor, the greatest destroyer of peace, and also proves that we need to accelerate the construction of a highly resilient, comprehensive deterrent defense capability,” said the ministry, noting that Taiwan seeks “peace through strength.”

China’s saber-rattling also amps up pressure on Taiwan’s anti-Beijing president, Lai Ching-te, who is battling opposition lawmakers in the Taiwanese parliament who have launched impeachment efforts.

Defense analysts said the surrounding exercises are not limited to practicing an island blockade, as seen in the presence, according to state media, of a PLA Type 075 amphibious assault ship that would carry troops and military vehicles during an invasion.

Grant Newsham, a China expert and retired Marine Corps colonel, said the latest exercises are not a response to any actions taken by the U.S. or Japan. He noted that American arms sales have been transpiring for years and Beijing knows well that Japan would be forced to act in response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

China is on a clear timeline to seize the island by force or coercion, he said, and has built a military with the capabilities needed for an attack while practicing all elements of such an assault.

“This exercise, however, talks specifically about fighting ‘interventionist’ forces and beyond the First Island Chain. A clear message to the United States,” he said, noting the use during the war games of an amphibious assault ship.

“One gets the impression that Xi thinks he’s got the upper hand on Donald Trump — not least owing to the rare earth chokehold — and he’s certainly shown no inclination to ease up,” Col. Newsham said.

The Pentagon’s latest annual report on the Chinese military lists several options for Beijing’s drive to annex Taiwan, including a blockade, invasion and large-scale missile attack.

The report, made public last week, said the PLA is making steady progress toward its 2027 goal of achieving a “strategic decisive victory” over Taiwan, a “strategic counterbalance” against the United States in nuclear and other strategic domains, and “strategic deterrence and control” against other regional countries.

“In other words, China expects to be able to fight and win a war on Taiwan by the end of 2027,” the report said.

The Pentagon said China is determined to coerce Taiwan into unifying with the mainland.

“It does not merely seek to deter Taiwan from formally declaring its independence; instead, it seeks to apply near constant pressure on Taipei to reach meaningful but coerced progress toward unification on Beijing’s terms,” the report said.

Official Beijing statements in recent years have repeatedly omitted past references to seeking peaceful unification. Instead, China has stepped up military operations around Taiwan.

The increased coercive activities “indicate that Beijing is seeking to compel Taipei’s unification through a concerted pressure campaign, combined with positive inducements, rather than only deterring independence.”

The PLA pressure campaign targeting Taiwan included “response exercises,” like the latest drills, that are carried out during periods of heightened tensions.

PLA intrusions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone increased from 1,641 in 2023 to 3,067 in 2024, the latest figures in the Pentagon report.

Two major PLA exercises in 2024 called Joint Sword “simulated joint blockade operations around Taiwan, including the China Coast Guard publicly highlighting an encirclement of Taiwan during the second iteration.”

As China steps up its military operations around Taiwan, the Trump administration is focusing its military power on Venezuela.

Mr. Trump declined to say during a television interview last month how he would respond to a military assault on Taiwan.

Asked what the U.S. military would do if the PLA attacked across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait, Mr. Trump said: “You’ll find out if it happens. And he understands the answer to that.”

The president was referring to Mr. Xi.

Earlier, Mr. Trump said he was promised by the Chinese leader that China would not attempt to militarily annex Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province, during Mr. Trump’s administration.

Chinese state television CCTV quoted Zhang Chi,  professor at the National Defense University, as saying the exercises were aimed at “decapitation,” meaning “simulating strikes against key symbolic targets of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist leaders.”

“The PLA possesses formidable capabilities to precisely sanction the principal instigators of ‘Taiwan independence’ at any time,” Mr. Zhang said.