BEIJING/TAIPEI, Dec 29 (Reuters) – China’s military moved army, naval, air force and artillery units around Taiwan on Monday for its “Justice Mission 2025” drills, as the island vowed to defend democracy and mobilised troops to rehearse repelling a potential Chinese attack.

The Eastern Theatre Command announced the drills will involve live-fire exercises on Tuesday, in a statement containing a graphic demarcating five zones surrounding the island that will be under sea and air space restrictions for 10 hours from 8 a.m. (0000 GMT).

This marks China’s sixth major round of war games since 2022 after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the democratically governed island, and follows a rise in Chinese rhetoric over Beijing’s territorial claims after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

The exercises began 11 days after the U.S. announced $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, the largest ever weapons package for the island, drawing a protest from China’s defence ministry and warnings the military would “take forceful measures” in response.

Analysts say Beijing’s drills increasingly blur the line between routine military training exercises and what could be stage-setting for an attack, a strategy intended to give the U.S. and its allies minimal warning of an assault.
China’s military said it had deployed fighter jets, bombers, unmanned aerial vehicles, and long-range rockets, and would practice striking mobile land-based targets while simulating a coordinated attack on the island from multiple directions.

“This (the drills) serves as a serious warning to ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces and external interference forces,” said Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command.
Taiwan’s government condemned the drills. A presidential office spokesperson urged China not to misjudge the situation and undermine regional peace, and called on Beijing to immediately halt what they described as irresponsible provocations.

SCARE TACTICS

The island’s defence ministry said two Chinese military aircraft and 11 ships had been operating around the island over the last 24 hours, and that Taiwan’s military was on high alert and poised to carry out “rapid response exercises.“
That particular drill is designed to move troops swiftly in case China suddenly turns one of its drills around the island into an attack.
“All members of our armed forces will remain highly vigilant and fully on guard, taking concrete action to defend the values of democracy and freedom,” the defence ministry said.

Dozens of Chinese military boats and planes were operating near Taiwan on Monday, and some of them “deliberately closing in” to Taiwan’s contiguous zone, defined as being 24 nautical miles from its coast, a senior Taiwan security official told Reuters.

Taiwan’s coast guard said it had dispatched large ships in reaction to Chinese coast guard activity near the island’s waters and that it was working with the island’s military to minimise the drills’ impact on maritime routes and fishing areas.
Taiwan stock markets were unaffected by the drills, up 0.6% to a record high in morning trading.

“I think these drills are just meant to scare us,” said Lin Wei-ming, a 31-year-old teacher based in the capital, Taipei. “Similar drills have happened before… the political side of things can only be handled by Taiwan’s current government and how they choose to respond.“

Taiwan rejects China’s claimed sovereignty, maintaining that only its people can decide the island’s future.

’SMASH THE SEPARATIST SCOUNDRELS’

The Chinese military released two posters titled “Shields of Justice: Smashing Illusions,” and “Arrows of Justice: Control and Denial”, along with a third graphic depicting four locations across the island with targets locking on, following the drill announcement.

China’s state broadcaster said the drills would focus on sealing off Taiwan’s vital deep-water Port of Keelung to the island’s north and Kaohsiung to Taiwan’s south, the island’s largest port city.

While the PLA practiced port blockades around Taiwan during war games last year, this marks the first time it has publicly stated that drills around the island are aimed at “deterrence” of outside military intervention.

The Japanese prime minister’s remarks triggered a surge in Chinese messaging stressing its sovereignty claims. Chinese leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump in November that Taiwan’s “return to China” after World War Two was central to Beijing’s vision of the global order.

The first poster appeared to show the armada of civilian ships China is mobilising to help in an attack on Taiwan. Vessels with ramps and open decks similar to military landing craft used in amphibious assaults were also shown.
“Any foreign interference that touches the shield (of justice) shall perish!” the poster read. “Any separatist scoundrels who encounter the shield shall be destroyed!“

The second poster shows flaming arrows raining down on Taiwan and spearing green cartoon bugs. Beijing regularly calls Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te a “parasite” and began using the cartoon green bug caricature to represent separatist forces during April’s war games.

“I think their (China’s) goal is, as they said, ‘keep the island, not the people,’” said Stephanie Huang, a 56-year-old interior designer. “They just want to save face by claiming Taiwan as part of their own country, but Taiwanese people don’t see it that way.”

“We are who we are; they are who they are.”

Reporting by Joe Cash and Yimou Lee in Taipei; Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing and Fabian Hamacher in Taipei; Editing by Neil Fullick, Stephen Coates and Lincoln Feast.