Targeted moves

The drills have been aimed at deterring separatist forces and external interference in the Taiwan question.

In the latest actions, the PLA dispatched an amphibious assault ship formation for the first time. Such a move was highly targeted, according to Zhang Junshe, a former researcher at the Naval Research Academy.

He said that an amphibious landing is widely viewed as one of the main operational approaches in any potential cross-Strait conflict scenario.

The drills included joint sea-air strikes and live-fire launches of long-range box-type multiple rocket launchers, which Zhang described as a warning to separatists that "there are many ways" to impose punishment.

In a Dec 30 New York Times report, Joshua Arostegui, research director of the China Landpower Studies Center at the US Army War College, was quoted as saying the rocket launchers mobilized in the exercises "can fire basically anywhere along the coast to range most, if not all, of Taiwan".

Some foreign media outlets and Taiwan media reports claimed the five exercise zones designated this latest time were the closest yet to Taiwan Island compared with the previous six major exercises.

Zhang said the placement of the zones reflected that "the rope" around separatist forces' neck was being tightened. He added that Taiwan is part of China, and therefore, "wherever the PLA sets the exercise areas, it is natural, normal and reasonable".

Repeated action

Before the drills in December, there had been six rounds of major military actions encircling the island by the PLA, with the first taking place in August 2022, shortly after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Two rounds of large-scale exercises were conducted in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The first exercise in 2022 did not have a specific code name. The drills in April 2023 and both exercises in 2024 were labeled under the Joint Sword series.

In April last year, the exercise was code-named Strait Thunder-2025A, while the December 2025 drills were named Justice Mission-2025, a title widely seen as intended to underscore the legitimacy of China's actions against separatism and external interference.

According to the PLA Eastern Theater Command, the longest of the seven actions was the first in 2022, which lasted more than a week, while the other six lasted between one and three days.