China’s military fired rockets into waters north and south of Taiwan on Tuesday, the second day of its “Justice Mission 2025” live fire drills aimed at simulating a blockade of the island.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said that “the blockade of four ports is fake news,” while confirming that this week’s drills are the closest yet to Taiwan.
In the 24-hour period prior to 6 a.m. this morning, the defense ministry detected 130 military aircraft, 14 navy vessels and eight “official ships” (presumed to be coast guard vessels) operating around Taiwan. 90 out of 130 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). According to Ben Lewis, the founder of PLATracker which records the number of daily sorties, it was the second busiest day on record.
Taiwan’s defense ministry announced this afternoon that 71 Chinese military aircraft and 13 naval vessels had operated around the island today before four p.m., with 35 planes crossing the Taiwan Strait median line.
In addition, a formation of four Chinese amphibious assault ships was detected operating in the western Pacific.
15 China Coast Guard vessels were spotted, eight of which entered Taiwan’s contiguous zone. The contiguous zone is a 22 kilometer wide band of water that sits outside Taiwan’s territorial sea.
Countries have a limited amount of sovereignty within their contiguous zones. During drills earlier this year Taiwan confirmed for the first time that Chinese coast guard vessels had crossed the line into the contiguous zone.
At a news conference, Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) stated that starting at 9 a.m. today, the Chinese military long-range rocket artillery units in Fujian’s coastal region conducted a volley of live-fire launches targeting a designated area of ocean to the north of Taiwan, near Keelung. A second volley was fired at a zone in the south near Tainan in the afternoon. China fired 27 rockets in all. The impact zones were scattered around but not in Taiwan’s 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone. Some rockets entered the contiguous zone.
China’s Eastern Theatre Command, which is responsible for joint operations in the Taiwan Strait, said the drills were to test joint operations and “all-dimensional deterrence.” They reiterated that they were a warning against “Taiwan independence” forces and “external interference.”
The Eastern Theatre Command released footage of PCL-191 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) firing, with subsequent impacts onto the open sea filmed from the air.
China yesterday announced a total of eight different maritime and air restricted zones, to be used for the live firing today. This may have included ships firing their guns within the zones, as depicted in Chinese videos from the past two days, as well as the rockets fired from China itself.
As a result of the announcement of these zones and the lack of clarity surrounding their use, flights from Taiwan to the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which lie on the Chinese side of the strait, were cancelled today. China’s drills last December, by contrast, appeared to maintain corridors through otherwise restricted areas of the strait, allowing air traffic to the outer islands to continue.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said this afternoon that 941 international flights were also disrupted.
Major General Chu Hui-fang (朱慧芳) also said that Taiwan’s government had detected 46 instances of disinformation on Monday, 34 of which concerned the military drills. Notable false rumors included the claim that China had blockaded four of Taiwan’s major maritime ports, and that Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) is on vacation.
Correction: This story was updated on January 2 due to a translation error. It was not rocket debris that landed in Taiwan’s contiguous zone, but rather the PLA rockets themselves.
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