China’s military announces major drills around Taiwan, code-naming it ‘Justice Mission 2025’

China’s military has announced major drills in the air and sea around Taiwan, in a move one defence expert warns could be to “test” how the Trump administration might respond.

Beijing claimed the live-fire drills would run from 8am to 6pm local time on December 30 — deploying army, navy, air force and “rocket force” troops for the activities code-named “Justice Mission 2025”.

Defence and national security expert Jennifer Parker said that while multiple factors could be behind the timing of the drills, their increasing frequency could be Beijing’s attempt to “test” how the US might respond while it was “prosecuting” other concerns elsewhere.

Ms Parker highlighted that the recent exercise came as Western countries enjoyed the festive season and as the Trump administration had locked its focus on a peace deal in Ukraine.

“I think there’s been some actions from China this year that have wanted to test the US and its alliances,” she said.

“The US is very focused, clearly, on a peace deal in Ukraine. The US has also amassed major forces in the Caribbean and in the last week, we’ve also seen the US undertaking strikes in Nigeria.

“China might be wanting to test the US and how they might respond to this exercise in terms of posturing forces, whilst the US is prosecuting their interests or concerns elsewhere around the world.

“The circumnavigation of Australia earlier this year by the Chinese naval task group — which was significant in its difference — in some ways, that was testing Australia, but in other ways, I think it was testing the new Trump administration.”

China last held large-scale drills, code-named “Strait Thunder”, involving live firing around Taiwan in April, which focused on joint blockades and area control.

Ms Parker, an expert associate at the ANU’s National Security College, said since former US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022, China has been increasingly undertaking the major exercises.

“China has seemed to do two a year since then, but in 2025 we saw ‘Strait Thunder’, which was much earlier in the year. We didn’t see a second one,” she said.

“In some ways, I would say that this major exercise is actually kind of consistent with China’s pattern, although a little bit later in the year than we would have expected.

“Every time we see one of these major exercises, people tend to jump to the conclusion that something’s happened in the last couple of weeks that has triggered it. My view is that these exercises really do take months in planning.

“If you track these exercises since they started doing these massive joint exercises in 2022, they are increasingly becoming more and more complex with different elements.

“I think this is the first time they’ve actually come out and specifically said that exercising sealing off ports is a key aim.

“Like Australia, Taiwan is incredibly vulnerable in terms of that it imports almost everything, including its energy.

“So, China demonstrating the ability to seal off its ports really goes to some of those vulnerabilities.

“They’ve got the PR machine going as well. The strategic communications campaign with these exercises is also becoming more and more detailed.”

Senior Colonel Shi Yi — a spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army — said in a statement that the drills would mainly focus on “sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, assault on maritime and ground targets, and blockade of key areas and sea lanes”.

“The drills serve as a stern warning and forceful deterrent against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and are a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity,” Sen-Col Shi said in a statement.

“For the sake of safety, any irrelevant vessel or aircraft is advised not to enter the aforementioned waters and airspace.”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence labelled it as “irrational provocations” and “actions that undermine regional peace”, in a statement posted to X on Monday.

“Rapid Response Exercises are underway, with forces on high alert to defend the Republic of China and protect our people,” it stated.

Taiwan’s Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo condemned China’s “disregard for international norms and the use of military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries”.

Taiwan’s military said it had established a response centre, deployed “appropriate forces” and “carried out a rapid response exercise”.

It claimed China’s actions just proved its “nature as an aggressor, making it the greatest destroyer of peace”.

The escalating tension came after the self-ruled territory welcomed its largest-ever American weapons package in December.

Ms Kuo said at the time that the $US11.1 billion ($16.5b) investment was important for “peace and stability”.

A map published in Chinese state media showed five key exercise zones in waters and airspace around Taiwan.