China announced military exercises around Taiwan on Monday, mobilizing naval, air, ground and missile forces for what the People’s Liberation Army described as a “stern warning” to opponents of Beijing’s claims to the island. As part of the drills, Chinese authorities said that seven zones of ocean and air space around Taiwan would be sealed off for live-fire exercises to be held on Tuesday.
The operation, called “Justice Mission 2025,” marked the first major military exercises around Taiwan since April by the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A. They appeared designed to display Beijing’s growing capabilities to encircle Taiwan. They also came after the administration of President Trump revealed a proposed package of arms sales to Taiwan earlier this month that would be worth more than $11 billion and include powerful high-mobility artillery rocket systems known as HIMARS.
Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, the part of the Chinese military that is conducting the exercises, said it would simulate blockading ports and establishing Chinese dominance to the east of Taiwan — the direction from which any potential wartime support from the United States and its allies would likely come. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that it had deployed forces as a precaution in the heightened tensions.
“These exclusion zones do seem to be a very realistic representation of where the P.L.A. would operate from to enforce a blockade of Taiwan,” said David Sacks, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies relations between the United States, China and Taiwan.
Colonel Shi said the exercises were “a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.” But Beijing gave no specific reason for holding the exercises now, and experts said several factors may have prompted China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to renew threats of an armed attack on Taiwan.
“The timing of P.L.A. drills are increasingly disconnected from single political events,” said Amanda Hsiao, the director of China coverage at the Eurasia Group, a company that advises clients on global risks. “This drill may be as much intended for domestic audiences as much as Taiwan and U.S. ones.”
China’s main state-run television broadcaster, CCTV, said the exercises, which began on Monday, included destroyers, fighter bombers and drones conducting “maritime and airborne search-and-destroy operations, simulated strikes on land and live-fire naval drills.” It also said Chinese forces were training to win air superiority and hunt submarines to the island’s east.
Taiwan’s coast guard reported spotting four Chinese coast guard ships to the north and east of the island. China has often used its coast guard to assert territorial claims.
China’s Communist Party leaders have long maintained that Taiwan, an island-democracy of 23 million people, is Beijing’s territory. Mr. Xi has been building up his nation’s military to apply pressure on Taiwan, and perhaps one day try to take it by force.
But the People’s Liberation Army leadership has also been in turmoil. Dozens of commanders and generals have been removed in recent years, some formally dismissed and investigated for corruption and other suspected misconduct, others disappearing from public view without explanation.
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The upheavals have magnified doubts among experts about the Chinese military’s readiness to seize Taiwan by force. Last week, Mr. Xi appointed a new commander — Yang Zhibin, a former air force pilot — to lead the Eastern Theater Command, which is in charge of the area around Taiwan.
While General Yang appears to have been acting commander of the Eastern Theater for months, the exercises were announced right after he was officially put in charge, said Lin Ying-yu, an associate professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan who studies the Chinese military.
“I personally think this could also be considered a new test for him,” Professor Lin said.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi have been trying to stabilize relations ahead of a planned summit in Beijing in April. Although China’s initial reaction to the arms sales to Taiwan was relatively muted, the exercises may be intended to convey China’s anger, said Mr. Sacks from the Council on Foreign Relations.
“This response is expected, given the scale of the arms sale package,” Mr. Sacks said. Mr. Xi appeared “confident he can push without provoking a counter response from President Trump.”
On Monday, a Chinese-language social media account run by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the proposed weapons sales would “seriously damage peace in the Taiwan Strait.”
Mr. Xi may also intend the exercises as a warning to Japan against supporting Taiwan in a possible conflict. Beijing bitterly condemned Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, after she said in November that an attempt by China to blockade or seize Taiwan could be seen as a “survival-threatening” situation in her country — words that could, under Japanese law, allow the deployment of military forces.
The timing of China’s exercises “has the flavor of an indirect attack aimed at Japan,” said Professor Lin, the Taiwanese military expert.
Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The Times, reports on China and Taiwan from Taipei, focused on politics, social change and security and military issues.
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