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China Launches Massive Naval Drill Simulating Blockade of Taiwan

PLA
Courtesy PLA

Published Dec 29, 2025 4:33 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

The Chinese military has launched a sweeping exercise simulating an assault and blockade of the island of Taiwan, a forceful response to recent U.S. and Japanese measures that support the territory's continued self-governance.

In an announcement Sunday, China's PLA Eastern Theater Command announced that it would hold mass military drills around the island to send a message, including simulated "sea-air combat readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, blockade on key ports and areas, as well as all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain."

Tuesday's drills saw the PLA Navy conduct "warning and expulsion, simulated strikes, assault on maritime targets, as well as anti-air and anti-submarine operations" to the north and south of Taiwan. A propaganda poster released by Eastern Theater Command described the overall mission as "Hammer of Justice: Seal the Ports, Cut the Lines," with images of hammers hitting key port regions in the north and south of the island (below).

PLA Eastern Theater Command / Taiwan Security Watch

Promotional messages surrounding the exercise are more explicit in their military intent than those used in previous versions of China's mass Taiwan-intervention drills. Less diplomatic in style, the material centers on China's advanced (or in-development) all-domain drone capabilities, visibly targeted at strategic sites in Taiwan. 

The maritime and airspace exclusion zones announced by China extend all around the island, and may well cover more area than any other previous exercise. The PLA continued to add more designated areas through the day on Monday. 

The announced activity includes a blockade line to be operated by the PLA's China Coast Guard, a division of China's military and the largest agency of its kind in the world. The CCG operates the largest cutters afloat, and more of them than any other nation. While well-armed, and known for its use of force, it operates as a white-hull law enforcement agency. The announced cordon extends across both entrances to the Taiwan Strait, through the Strait of Luzon, around the east side of the island, and near to the disputed Senkaku Islands, occupied by Japan and claimed by China. 

The diagram, above, shows three traditional Chinese knots in the CCG's red-line cordon: one east of Taiwan, symbolizing unity (reunification with the mainland, a development unwanted by Taiwan's populace); and two knots signaling order and structure, symbolizing punishment of "Taiwan independence separatist activities" and opposition to "external interference." 

Western analysts have long warned that China's military exercises could rapidly turn into a real naval blockade or full-scale invasion of Taiwan. With naval, rocket force and air force assets already mustered and in place, the switch from peacetime to wartime could occur in minutes rather than days or weeks; further, the high frequency of close Chinese military activity could normalize the threatening behavior and lead to complacency amongst Taiwan's defenders and allies.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that he was not concerned by the drills, saying that China conducts naval drills near Taiwan "all the time." 

There are few questions about whether the PLA is gearing towards preparedness for a Taiwan Strait action, beyond the clear geographic focus of its most intense exercises. It conducts regular amphibious-assault drills with a mix of naval and civilian ships, and it has developed specialized landing barges for this purpose. It has built the world's largest surface navy, world's largest coast guard and world's most diverse anti-ship ballistic missile inventory - all suitable for deterring Taiwan's most important ally, the U.S. Navy. And it has experimented with adapting its vast civilian merchant fleet for militarized purposes, including ro-ro ferries that can carry assault vehicles and container ships that can be turned into missile-carrying arsenal ships.