Exercise area of "Justice Mission 2025"  Photo: PLA Eastern Theater Command

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched the "Justice Mission 2025" exercise on Monday. Experts interviewed by the Global Times stated that the PLA's countermeasure operation this time sends an extremely clear signal, directly targeting a series of recent collusive acts between the US and Taiwan regional authorities, noting that the more rampant "Taiwan independence" separatist activities become, the tougher the PLA's countermeasures will be.

According to a Reuters report, the US government announced on December 17 that it would sell weapons and equipment worth $11.1 billion to the Taiwan region of China, setting a record for the largest-ever US arms sales to Taiwan. In a statement, the defense authority of the Taiwan region claimed that the proposed arms sales cover eight items, including the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Altius loitering munition drones, and  parts for other equipment. The US Department of Defense claimed that the arms sales serve US national, economic and security interests by supporting Taiwan's continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a "credible defensive capability."

Shen Yi, a professor at the Department of International Politics at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Monday that the US arms sales to Taiwan, in terms of the scale of the amount, the nature of the weapon systems, and the timing of its announcement, has sent an alarming and dangerous signal. It is not only a blatant act sending wrong message to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, but also a serious violation of the US commitments on the Taiwan question.

Public reports show that regarding the US arms sales to Taiwan, as early as 1982, the US government signed the August 17 Communiqué with China. In the communiqué, the US government made three important commitments to China, stating that "it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends to gradually reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution."

The US government's drastic escalation of the scale and offensive nature of arms sales not only reneges on its relevant political commitments, but also violates the explicit agreements in the August 17 Communiqué, Shen said. Even based on the so-called Taiwan Relations Act, a unilateral piece of legislation concocted by the US and never recognized by the Chinese side, the US claims that the weapons sold to Taiwan should be "defensive in nature." However, the HIMARS rocket systems are clearly offensive equipment. This action has injected great uncertainty into the situation across the Taiwan Straits and poses a severe impact on the security and stability of the region.



Against this backdrop, the PLA is bound to make a clear and tough response, Shen noted. 

The expert elaborated that first, China will never tolerate any external forces blatantly interfering in its internal affairs; second, we have full confidence and capability to achieve national reunification through various means, including non-peaceful ones if necessary; and third, from a technical and operational capability perspective, the weapons and equipment purchased by the DPP authorities have no practical combat value. 

The Eastern Theater Command mentioned that it "focused on striking mobile ground targets and tested the troops' capabilities of precision strikes on key targets," which means that once the situation escalates, these HIMARS rocket systems will be completely destroyed at the very beginning of any conflict, according to Shen.

In response to the continuous provocations by "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, the PLA has been increasing pressure step by step. From the military exercises in 2022, to "Joint Sword-2024A" and "Joint Sword-2024B," and now "Justice Mission 2025," the encirclement chain around the island is tightening further.

"The more rampant 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities become, the tougher the PLA's countermeasures will be," Shen noted. This is reflected not only in the fact that every provocation by "Taiwan independence" separatist forces will be met with firm countermeasures, but also in the PLA's steady and continuous enhancement in its capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Looking back at the historical context of military exercises in the Taiwan Straits, each exercise has shown a clear progressive trend, with the exercise areas coming closer and closer to the Taiwan main island, the expert noted. 

A poster themed "unilateral transparency" was released for the drill, which Shen believes implies that the PLA has achieved full control over the battlefield situation across the Taiwan Straits, and that all high-tech main battle weapons and core vital targets on the island are covered by our full-time situational awareness.

"Any attempt to 'seek independence by force' or 'rely on external forces to seek independence' is doomed to fail, and this is determined by sheer strength. The strong capabilities demonstrated by the mainland today are sufficient to ensure that any attempt by external forces to intervene in the Taiwan question will be comprehensively defeated," Shen said.