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By Micah McCartney
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China has fired rockets into the waters around Taiwan during the second day of military drills by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aimed at punishing the island democracy, which Beijing claims as its territory.
Why It Matters
China has held a number of punitive drills since 2022, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drew Beijing’s ire by visiting Taipei to meet with the Taiwanese president and other officials. During exercises immediately following Pelosi's visit, Chinese forces fired missiles over the island, with one landing inside Japan’s maritime zone.
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China has framed the current drills—dubbed "Justice Mission 2025"—as a warning to Taiwanese "separatists" and "external forces," without naming any other countries. However, Chinese officials have highlighted recent U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, including a record $11-billion package approved earlier this month.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry by email with a request for comment.
What To Know
The PLA Eastern Theater Command announced it had carried out a "long-range joint firepower strike" in waters south of Taiwan at 1 p.m. That followed an earlier announcement that strikes had been carried out in waters north of the island around 9 a.m.
China had previously announced five no-fly or sail zones around Taiwan in the lead-up to the drills, and later designated several overlapping areas for "military exercises and gun firing" to last up to 10 hours.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense pledged to closely monitor the situation, saying air and sea units and the coast guard remain on high alert.
President Donald Trump has played down the threat, telling reporters Monday night he was not worried because China has been "doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area."
"I have a great relationship with President Xi," continued Trump. "And I don’t believe he’s gonna be doing it," he told reporters during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump previously said he had Chinese President Xi Jinping’s assurance that Beijing would not move against Taiwan during Trump’s second term in office, which ends in January 2029.
Although China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, Bejiing's Communist Party-led government has never ruled on the island since coming to power in 1949. Taiwan functions as a sovereign state with its own elected government, diplomatic relations, military and economy.
A survey released in April by Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council showed more than eight in 10 Taiwanese oppose unification with China under Beijing's proposed "one country, two systems" framework.
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What People Are Saying
Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Defense Ministry, on Monday framed the exercises as a response to the arms sale recently greenlit by Washington, stating that "external forces" have repeatedly crossed red lines on Taiwan and vowing that this support for "separatist activities" would backfire.
"Taiwan independence' is incompatible with peace across the [Taiwan] Strait," state media quoted him as saying.
Sean King, Asia scholar and vice president of New York-based consultancy Park Strategies, told Newsweek: "People obviously had these drills in the can, just waiting for the latest purported outrage to stage them. People should thus, at the very least, finally stop blaming Pelosi for her Taiwan visit, after which Beijing chose to stage similar exercises."
"Maybe Xi is trying to get Trump’s attention by labeling the drills ‘Justice Mission 2025,’ thinking they might remind the president of his own much-maligned Project 2025. But good on Trump for downplaying the exercises. This is what Beijing does, and we [the U.S.] can’t overreact."
Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, wrote on X Monday: “[The exercise] is an act of escalation, threatens regional peace, and violates the basic principles embedded in the United Nations Charter. China is such a troublemaker."
What Happens Next
Taiwanese officials said Monday the exercise zones announced by China include some areas falling within Taiwan’s territorial waters, per local media.
Officials said Taiwanese forces have approval to engage Chinese warships entering these waters, arguing such action would be justifiable self-defense under the U.N. Charter. However, Taiwan’s frontline response will be based on the perceived level of threat and clear operational guidance, officials said.
Update: 9:24 a.m., 12/30/25. This article has been updated with additional informaiton.
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