China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), through its various branches and services, has launched a major new military exercise around the island of Taiwan. Officially dubbed “Justice Mission 2025”, it has been described as the largest deployment ever undertaken by the Chinese military in terms of area covered and resources involved. While Beijing has conducted similar maneuvers in the past, the areas designated for this operation far exceed those of previous exercises such as Joint Sword A, Joint Sword B, or Strait Thunder, encompassing sectors to the north, south, east, and west of the island.
Force Deployment and Planned Operations
According to an official statement from the PLA Eastern Theater Command, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force units began deploying on December 29 to conduct joint exercises in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding maritime and air areas. Planned activities include air-sea combat patrols, joint superiority operations, simulated blockades of ports and key areas, and comprehensive deterrence actions extending beyond the first island chain.
Although Beijing indicated that the main exercise would begin on December 30, Chinese sources confirmed that exercises involving anti-ship maneuvers in maritime areas by PLA Navy assets, as well as air activities, had already taken place in locations north and southwest of Taiwan. According to Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, these exercises involved destroyers, frigates, bombers, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, and anti-ship missile systems, rehearsing detection and attack operations against maritime targets, simulated attacks against land targets, and missile launches.
Meanwhile, the PLA released an official video featuring footage from the initial phases of Exercise Justice Mission 2025. The footage shows a combination of fighter jets and attack aircraft conducting firing exercises, radar systems, an Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS), and scenes of joint coordination between naval and air forces.
Taiwan is monitoring the military activity and reinforcing its defensive posture.
For their part, Taiwanese authorities reported the presence of at least 89 Chinese aircraft and 29 vessels, including PLA Navy and Coast Guard units, operating in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait and the Miyako Channel, a strategic passage to the western Pacific.
From Taipei, the response was swift. The Taiwanese government publicly expressed its rejection of the Chinese maneuvers, classifying them as a direct threat to regional stability. Simultaneously, Taiwan deployed its own defense systems, including the mobilization of Hsiung Feng II (HF-2) and Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) anti-ship missiles from the Zuoying Naval Base in the southwest of the island, F-16V and Mirage 2000 fighter jets from the Republic of Taiwan Air Force (ROCAF), and troops, signaling its defensive readiness in the face of increased Chinese military pressure.
Compared to previous exercises, one of the elements that has generated the most attention is the geographic scale of the areas involved. Specialized observers emphasize that the areas declared for Justice Mission 2025 are considerably larger than those of previous maneuvers, suggesting a deliberate effort to test the PLA’s ability to operate in a coordinated manner both within and beyond the island chain, projecting power into the Pacific and complicating the response times of Taiwan and its partners.
The participation of Chinese Navy aircraft carriers: an unknown factor
Another point being closely monitored by the analysis community is the possible participation of Chinese aircraft carriers in the Justice Mission 2025 exercise. During the Joint Sword B maneuvers, conducted several months ago, the PLA Navy deployed at least one of its aircraft carriers as part of the air and naval deployment, reinforcing the idea of a show of force toward Taiwan. In the current exercise, the presence of these types of units has not yet been confirmed, although observers do not rule out their inclusion in later phases. So far, only the deployment of a Type 055 LHD has been observed.
This question takes on greater relevance considering that last week, the aircraft carriers Fujian (CV-18) and Liaoning (CV-16) were detected docked simultaneously at Yuchi Naval Base in Qingdao, northeast China—an unusual occurrence that led analysts to suggest that both naval units might be preparing a joint deployment.
Thus, China’s latest exercise adds to a sustained sequence of military actions surrounding Taiwan that have been raising tensions in the Indo-Pacific. The combination of early deployments, live-fire exercises, and explicit political messages reinforces the perception that Beijing continues to use these maneuvers as a central tool of deterrence and pressure in an increasingly volatile regional scenario.
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