China: “Justice Mission 2025” and the Taiwan Strait
In East Asia, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has concluded two days of massive live-fire drills encircling Taiwan. Codenamed “Justice Mission 2025,” the exercises involved 130 aircraft and 14 naval vessels, with some missiles reportedly landing closer to the Taiwanese coast than in any previous drill. Beijing described the maneuvers as a “punitive response” to recent U.S. arms sales and “separatist activities” by the island’s leadership.
The drills effectively established temporary “dangerous zones” that disrupted nearly 1,000 commercial flights and several major shipping lanes. While Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense condemned the maneuvers as “highly provocative and reckless,” Beijing maintains that the exercises are a necessary measure to safeguard its territorial integrity. The show of force has drawn sharp criticism from Japan and the United Kingdom, who warned that any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait would have catastrophic consequences for the global economy.
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