Global & US Headlines
PLA Unveils “Justice Mission 2025” Blockade Drill After Record U.S. $11.1 B Arms Sale to Taiwan
On 29 December 2025, China launched its largest joint exercise to date—‘Justice Mission 2025’—surrounding Taiwan with 14+ warships and 89 aircraft in live-fire zones announced only 24 hours earlier, explicitly framing the action as retaliation for Washington’s mid-December $11.1 billion arms package to Taipei.
Focusing Facts
- Seven exclusion zones inside the Taipei FIR forced rerouting or cancellation of roughly 1,000 flights, disrupting travel for an estimated 100,000 passengers on 30 December.
- The drill marks the PLA’s sixth island-encirclement operation since 2022, and the first in which Eastern Theater Command declared an objective of “all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain.”
- Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned on 7 November that any PLA blockade could trigger a “survival-threatening situation,” hinting at potential Japanese military involvement.
Context
Beijing’s move echoes the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait Crisis—when missile tests provoked U.S. carrier deployments—and even the 1962 Cuban blockade, where rapid escalation around a maritime cordon risked super-power confrontation. The drills reveal two long-running vectors: (1) China’s three-decade drive for joint power-projection and blockade capability, and (2) the arms-sale/escalation cycle in which each U.S. transfer boosts Taipei’s defense while providing Beijing fresh justification for pressure, eroding the strategic ambiguity baked into the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. By stress-testing air routes and port access without crossing the shooting threshold, the PLA is normalising a coercive template that could one day be flipped from exercise to fait accompli within hours—much as Imperial Germany’s High Seas Fleet rehearsed North Sea sorties before 1914. On a century scale, this episode illustrates the classic insecurity spiral of a rising power confronting an incumbent order; whether it hardens an Asian balance akin to Cold-War Europe or pushes actors toward an eventual negotiated status for Taiwan may depend less on today’s hardware counts than on how consistently each side can manage these rehearsals without a miscalculation becoming irrevocable.
Perspectives
Chinese state-owned media
e.g., RTHK, Xinhua commentary — Portrays the PLA’s “Justice Mission 2025” drills as a rightful, “stern warning” essential to defend national sovereignty against Taiwan’s ruling party and meddling foreign powers. Echoes Beijing’s official talking points while omitting the drills’ economic impact or Taiwan’s democratic mandate, reflecting the state incentive to legitimise coercive actions.
Right-leaning / hawkish U.S. outlets
e.g., One America News Network, Maritime Executive — Frames the exercises as China’s largest and most threatening encirclement of Taiwan to date, underscoring Beijing as an aggressor and validating expanded U.S. military aid to Taipei. Highlights worst-case invasion scenarios and U.S. strategic stakes, reinforcing a pro-arms, confrontational posture while giving little space to Beijing’s stated grievances.
Regional and wire-style mainstream news
e.g., Vail Daily, ANI, Sentinel Colorado — Reports the drills as a serious escalation that disrupts flights and prompts mutual accusations, presenting quotes from both Beijing and Taipei to underline rising tensions. Pursues balance by juxtaposing official statements but tends to flatten the power asymmetry, reducing a high-stakes security crisis to a ‘he-said-she-said’ narrative and travel inconvenience. ( Vail Daily , Asian News International (ANI) )