Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command’s launching “Justice Mission 2025” drills around Taiwan Island is not only legally defensible, but also strategically meaningful as a necessary response to escalating external interference and the reckless push for “Taiwan independence.” The drills are both a legitimate exercise of jurisdiction and sober warning against attempts to turn the Taiwan Straits into a geopolitical keg.
To begin with, the exercises fully conform to international law and practices.
The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair. The fact that Taiwan is part of China’s territory means the country are entitled to take non‑peaceful means when necessary to stop secessionist attempts. Within this legal architecture, the PLA’s activities in waters and airspace under China’s jurisdiction, including exercises in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding maritime zones, fall squarely within the scope of sovereign rights and security responsibilities.
While some Western voices habitually invoke concepts such as “freedom of navigation” to question the drills, they deliberately ignore an elementary fact: Freedom of navigation has never meant freedom to undermine another country’s sovereignty or interfere in its internal issues.
The PLA Eastern Theater Command issued public coordinates and a time window for the five drill areas, explicitly advising unrelated ships and aircraft to steer clear for safety. Such notifications conform to established practice under international maritime law and underscore that China is acting with restraint and responsibility, not in a reckless or opaque manner.
From an operational perspective, “Justice Mission 2025” is not a symbolic show, but a highly practical joint exercise aimed at improving real‑combat capabilities in a complex security environment. The drills bring together Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force units in the Taiwan Straits and areas to the island’s north, southwest, southeast and east.
The announced training subjects – sea‑air combat readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, blockade of key ports and areas, and all‑dimensional deterrence beyond the island chain – touch directly on the core tasks the Eastern Theater Command must be prepared for in a contingency.
In recent years, external forces have ramped up close‑in reconnaissance and military presence in the region, while “Taiwan separatism” elements have continuously sought to hollow out the one‑China principle through legal and political salami‑slicing. Against this backdrop, these exercises are a stabilizing factor: By demonstrating credible capabilities and clear red lines, they help prevent miscalculation by separatists and their backers.
Just as Shi Yi, spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, noted, the drills are a “stern warning against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and external interference, and a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.”
In sharp contrast to the defensive and sovereign nature of the PLA drills, Washington’s ever‑larger arms packages to the Taiwan region are a textbook case of creating risks under the banner of “self‑defense.” The latest U.S. package – reportedly worth around $11 billion – only deepens division across the Straits and further militarizes an already tense situation.
When the U.S. established diplomatic relations with China, it made clear commitments in the three China‑U.S. joint communiqués. Today, Washington repeatedly expands and upgrades arms sales, shipping advanced missiles, radar systems and other offensive platforms, and even dragging in a host of private defense contractors. This is a blatant breach of its own political undertakings and a serious violation of the one-China principle widely recognized by the international community.
If Washington’s arms sales package is the fuel, then “Taiwan independence” separatism is the torch hovering above the barrel. This is precisely why the Eastern Theater Command emphasized that “Justice Mission 2025” is a stern warning to “Taiwan independence” forces and a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard national sovereignty and unity.
Seen in full, “Justice Mission 2025” is not an isolated maneuver, but part of a long‑term effort to build a security environment where war is deterred precisely because the cost of adventurism is made crystal‑clear. The clear announcement of drill areas, time windows and training subjects, combined with firm diplomatic opposition to external interference and illicit arms sales, sends a consistent message: China has the will, capability and legal basis to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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