PLA drills demonstrate resolve to reunify

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Since then-United States House speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative visit to Taiwan in August 2022, the People's Liberation Army has conducted seven large-scale military actions around the island, with the most recent held in late 2025 after what is believed to be the largest-ever US arms sales package to the Taiwan region.

Experts have said the drills have featured training areas drawn closer to the island and with a higher level of combat realism, while the PLA's resolve and capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity have remained unchanged.

On Dec 29, Shi Yi, spokesman for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, announced that the command had started a two-day exercise codenamed Justice Mission-2025 around Taiwan Island, mobilizing units from the ground force, navy, air force and rocket force. The drills focused on combat readiness at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, blockading key ports and areas, and multidimensional deterrence on outer lines.

On Dec 30, the PLA carried out long-range joint firepower strikes in waters south of Taiwan Island and organized live-fire drills. It also deployed forces, including an amphibious assault ship formation, destroyer and frigate formations, and unmanned aerial vehicles in waters east of the island, conducting exercises such as multilayered delivery, precision raids, and seizing and controlling key ports.

Shi said the exercises served as a stern warning to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and external interference, calling them a "legitimate and necessary action" to safeguard sovereignty and national unity.

Fu Zhengnan, a researcher at the PLA's Academy of Military Science, said the drills are a necessary response to what he described as "serious and provocative collusion" between the US and the island, particularly the latest US approval of more than $11.1 billion in arms sales to the region.

He said the arms package marked a significant escalation in scale, nature and the weapons involved.

The nature of the weapons has shifted, "from so-called defensive systems in previous US arms sales to clearly offensive capabilities in this round", Fu said. He stressed that this constituted a serious violation of the fundamental principles enshrined in the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique.