How are China’s new war games around Taiwan different from earlier drills?

China has held two-day subject drills – Justice Mission 2025 – astir Taiwan, marking the sixth circular of large-scale warfare games since 2022, erstwhile then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

The workout included 10 hours of unrecorded occurrence drills connected Tuesday arsenic Chinese forces practised encircling Taiwan and blockading its large ports.

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What happened during the Justice Mission 2025?

The warfare games began connected Monday successful the waters and airspace to the north, southwest, southeast and eastbound of Taiwan’s main island, according to China’s Eastern Theatre Command spokesperson Shi Yi.

The exercises saw China deploy its naval destroyers, frigates, combatant planes, bombers, drones, and long-range missiles to simulate seizing power of Taiwan’s airspace, blockading its ports, and striking captious infrastructure, “mobile crushed targets” and maritime targets, Shi said.

The exercises besides simulated a blockade of Taiwan and its main ports, Keelung and Kaohsiung.

Tuesday’s live-fire drills were held successful 5 zones astir Taiwan betwixt 8am and 6pm section clip (00:00 GMT and 10:00 GMT), according to the Eastern Theatre Command. Chinese forces fired long-range rockets into the waters astir the island, according to a video released by the subject connected societal media.

Taiwan’s coastguard said 7 rockets were fired into 2 drill zones astir the main island.

Ground forces instrumentality portion successful long-range live-fire drills targeting waters northbound of Taiwan, from an undisclosed determination successful this screenshot from a video released by the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army connected December 30, 2025 [Handout/Eastern Theatre Command via Reuters]

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence said it had tracked 130 aerial sorties by Chinese aircraft, 14 naval ships and 8 “official ships” betwixt 6am connected Monday and 6am connected Tuesday.

Ninety of the aerial sorties crossed into Taiwan’s aerial defence recognition portion (ADIZ), an country of onshore and oversea monitored by Taipei, during the 24 hours, successful the second-largest incursion of its benignant since 2022.

How were the exercises antithetic from past time?

Justice Mission 2025 was the largest warfare crippled since 2022 successful presumption of the country covered, according to Jaime Ocon, a probe chap astatine Taiwan Security Monitor.

“These zones are very, precise big, particularly the confederate and southeast zones astir Taiwan, which really breached territorial waters,” helium told Al Jazeera, referring to the portion wrong 12 nautical miles (22km) of Taiwan’s coast. “That’s a large escalation from erstwhile exercises.”

They besides focused explicitly connected blockading Taiwan, dissimilar past iterations, sending a beardown connection to Taipei and its unofficial allies, peculiarly the US and Japan.

“This is simply a wide objection of China’s capableness to behaviour A2/AD – anti-access aerial denial – making definite that Taiwan tin beryllium chopped disconnected from the satellite and that different actors similar Japan, the Philippines, oregon the United States cannot straight intervene,” Ocon said.

A blockade would interaction not lone the transportation of weapons systems but besides captious imports, specified arsenic earthy state and coal, that Taiwan relies connected to conscionable astir each its vigor needs. It would besides disrupt captious planetary shipping routes done the Taiwan Strait.

Alexander Huang, director-general of Taiwan’s Council connected Strategic and Wargaming Studies, told Al Jazeera the drills were akin to those held aft Pelosi’s sojourn successful August 2022.

“For this drill, it really interfered with planetary civilian aviation routes and besides maritime shipping routes. In erstwhile drills, they tried to debar that, but this clip they really disrupted the aerial and maritime traffic,” helium said.

The drills besides enactment unit connected Taiwan’s maritime and transport links to Kinmen and Matsu islands, which are person to the Chinese mainland.

Why did China signifier the exercises now?

China has a past of holding subject exercises to explicit its choler with Taiwan and its allies, but large-scale exercises person go much predominant since Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.

Beijing claims Taiwan arsenic a state and has accused the US of interfering successful its interior affairs by continuing to merchantability weapons to Taipei and supporting its “separatist” authorities led by President William Lai Ching-te.

Washington does not officially recognise Taiwan, whose ceremonial sanction is the Republic of China, but it has pledged to assistance Taipei support itself nether the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and the 1982 Six Assurances.

The Justice Mission 2025 came conscionable days aft Washington approved a record-breaking $11.1bn arms merchantability to Taiwan.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said connected Monday that the drills were a “punitive and deterrent enactment against separatist forces who question ‘Taiwan independence’ done subject build-up, and a indispensable determination to safeguard China’s nationalist sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Beijing sanctioned 30 US firms and individuals implicit the arms sale.

Experts besides accidental the exercises were linked to a abstracted but related diplomatic enactment betwixt China and Japan.

Beijing was angered successful November by remarks from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that an onslaught connected Taiwan would beryllium a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Such a script would legally licence Japan to workout its “right of corporate self-defence” and deploy its military, she said.

Several flights were cancelled astatine the Taipei airdrome during China’s latest subject drills astir Taiwan, December 30, 2025 [Ann Wang/Reuters]

How is Taiwan responding to the drills?

Taiwan cancelled much than 80 home flights connected Tuesday and warned that much than 300 planetary flights could beryllium delayed owed to formation rerouting during the live-fire drills.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the coastguard monitored the exercises adjacent the outlying islands and that an undisclosed fig of naval vessels had besides been deployed nearby. Taipei besides monitored each incursions into its ADIZ, including the Taiwan Strait, sections of coastal China, and waters astir Taiwan.

In a connection connected Tuesday, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said, “[Beijing’s] highly provocative actions severely undermine determination bid and stableness [and] besides airs a important information hazard and disruption to transport ships, commercialized activities, and formation routes.”

Koo described the exercises arsenic a signifier of “cognitive warfare” that aimed to “deplete Taiwan’s combat capabilities done a operation of subject and non-military means, and to make part and struggle wrong Taiwanese nine done a strategy of sowing discord”.

How did the US respond to the drills?

US President Donald Trump has truthful acold remained quiescent astir the subject drills, telling reporters connected Monday that helium was “not worried”.

“I person a large narration with President Xi, and helium hasn’t told maine thing astir it,” Trump said erstwhile asked astir the exercises during a quality conference, according to Reuters. “I don’t judge he’s going to beryllium doing it,” helium added, seemingly referring to the imaginable of existent subject enactment targeting Taiwan.

William Yang, a elder expert for Northeast Asia astatine the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Trump mightiness debar saying overmuch astir the Justice Mission 2025 exercises arsenic helium hopes to conscionable President Xi Jinping successful April to sermon a US-China commercialized deal. “It’s a diplomatic strategy to marque definite the US effect is not going to instantly upset the impermanent commercialized truce betwixt the US and China,” Yang said.

“I deliberation it’s rather accordant with however helium personally and his medication person been handling the contented of Taiwan by trying to de-prioritise making nationalist statements,” helium said.