China’s first major drills around Taiwan of 2025
What is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) practising around Taiwan and why?
The Investigator | No. 12/2025
Yesterday, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – announced the deployment of its ground, naval, air and rocket forces around Taiwan. Shi Yi, Senior Colonel in the PLA, said the drills would include sea-air combat-readiness patrols, strikes on sea and ground targets, and blockades on key areas and sea routes.
At the same time, the China Coast Guard (CCG) announced ‘law-enforcement patrols’, which would involve intercepting and inspecting ‘unwarranted vessels’. ‘These operations are concrete actions to exercise legitimate jurisdiction and control over Taiwan Island in accordance with the one-China principle’, a spokesperson said.
Prior to the drills, the Ministry of National Defence (MND) of Taiwan reported that the Shandong aircraft carrier entered their ‘response zone’ (a self-declared zone beyond territorial waters). The carrier subsequently engaged in operations approximately 220 nautical miles southeast of Taiwan involving – it is speculated – fighter aircraft and helicopters. According to the Financial Times, two people ‘briefed on the situation’ said that the Shandong was approaching waters 24 nautical miles off Taiwan’s coast; ‘the closest it has ever been to the Taiwanese mainland.’
Throughout 1st April until 6am (UTC+8) on 2nd April, Taiwan’s MND claims that 15 PLA Navy ships and four ‘official ships’ operated around Taiwan in addition to 76 sorties of PLA aircraft, 37 of which crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line.
According to the head of the MND’s Office of Deputy Chief of General Staff for Intelligence, who spoke at a press conference yesterday, no PLA aircraft or vessels entered Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles from the coast. However, ‘two senior Taiwan officials’ told Reuters that more than ten PRC military ships had approached close to the contiguous zone.
On 2nd April, the PLA announced that military exercises would continue with ‘Strait Thunder-2025A’ in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait. In their statement, interceptions and seizures were once again threatened, among other activities. As of publication, there is no indication that any PRC vessels have intercepted, boarded or detained ships in the area. Previous announcements of this kind appear not to have been acted upon.
It has since been reported that long-range live-fire drills were held in the East China Sea; although no locations were given, it was said that exercises aimed to simulate precision strikes on key ports and energy facilities.
There has not been any indication as to how long any of these exercises will last.
Motivations
These moves follow a visit to the region from Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defence of the United States (US), who pledged to bolster America’s military posture in Japan to deter Chinese aggression, including across the Taiwan Strait. Some Taiwanese analysts have linked the PLA’s actions to this development.
Beijing has, however, claimed that these exercises are in response to the ‘Taiwan independence’-seeking actions of Lai Ching-te, President of Taiwan. In particular, they cite Lai’s speech of 13th March as an escalatory move, worthy of ‘resolute countermeasures and strict punishment’.
Last month, Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to the national security challenges Taiwan faced. In doing so, the PRC was labelled a ‘foreign hostile force’. One wonders which word Beijing took most exception to – ‘hostile’ or ‘foreign’?
Of course, the People’s Republic may be using Lai’s three-week old words as a pretext for exercises which it always wanted to – and intended to – carry out for the purpose of practising military manoeuvres and applying further pressure on Taiwan’s people and their government.
Propaganda
Given the political objectives of PRC military manoeuvres around Taiwan, propaganda has often accompanied these shows of force. Last October, the CCG depicted their patrols around the main island with red lines in the shape of a heart, alongside the words: ‘The patrol is in the shape of loving you’ [巡航都是愛你的形狀].
This time, the Western Theatre Command of the PLA has depicted Lai as a green ‘parasite’, ‘poisoning’ and ‘hollowing out’ Taiwan, and ‘courting ultimate destruction’. In one of these images, a four-armed Lai can be seen grabbing opposition party assets and bribes as well as imprisoning Ko Wen-je, the former Chair of the Taiwan People’s Party, who has been indicted on corruption charges.
This imagery echoes Beijing’s recent efforts to portray Taiwan as living under ‘green authoritarianism’ (the colour of Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party). Only a few days ago, Xinhua, the PRC’s state media agency, described a ‘climate of fear’ across the island and accused Lai of stepping up ‘harassment’ against individuals and organisations engaging in cross-strait exchange.
With this message, Beijing no doubt wishes to amplify divisions within Taiwan (opposition politicians also accuse the government of ‘Green Terror’) as well as delegitimise the country’s democratic credentials worldwide. In turn, this could help justify their ‘response’.
‘Response’ would be the word. Another piece of propaganda pushed out yesterday attempted, as Beijing always does, to place the onus for these drills on ‘Taiwan Separatists’. Beijing wants the world to believe that they are ‘courting disaster upon themselves’.
Reaction
Taiwan’s military has responded with the deployment of its own ships and aircraft. Readiness levels have also been elevated to ensure, in the words of an MND spokesperson, that Beijing does not ‘turn drills into combat’ and ‘launch a sudden attack on us’. The Presidential Office has also condemned the moves as ‘blatant military provocations’ which ‘undermine security in the entire region’.
The US concurred: its statement expressed opposition to ‘China’s aggressive activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan’. Its State Department spokesperson went on to say that ‘China has shown that it is not a responsible actor’. Meanwhile, the European External Action Service has charged the Chinese exercises with ‘increasing cross-strait tensions’ and called for ‘restraint’. At the time of publication, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has not commented.
Gray Sergeant is the Research Fellow in the Indo-Pacific at the Council on Geostrategy.
To stay up to date with Observing China, please subscribe or pledge your support!
What do you think about this Analysis? Why not leave a comment below?