Taipei: Taiwan’s military on Tuesday reported that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fired 27 rockets during the second day of its latest military drill near Taiwan, with 10 landing at sea within the nation’s 24-nautical mile contiguous zone. This marks the closest Chinese live-fire exercise to Taiwan’s territory.
According to Focus Taiwan, Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense (MND), stated at a news briefing that the PLA fired a total of 27 rockets in two separate batches. These were launched using multiple rocket launchers from the Pingtan and Shishi areas in Fujian Province on Tuesday morning and afternoon, respectively.
Seventeen rockets were fired from Pingtan starting at 9 a.m., all of which landed in the sea off northern Taiwan within a PLA-designated drill zone, yet outside the 24-nautical mile contiguous zone. The remaining 10 rockets, launched from Shishi starting at 1 p.m., landed southwest of Taiwan in a designated drill zone within the 24-nautical mile zone, in the sea off southern Tainan City, as confirmed by Hsieh.
The contiguous zone, when combined with the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, allows coastal states to enforce customs, immigration, health, and sanitation laws up to 24 nautical miles from a coastal baseline. Hsieh highlighted that this is the closest PLA rockets have approached Taiwan proper in recent live-fire exercises.
The military official’s remarks came during an MND press briefing, a day after the PLA announced the commencement of a new round of joint exercises around Taiwan, code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The exercises, which began at 7:30 a.m. Monday, are intended as a “stern warning to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” according to PLA Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Senior Colonel Shi Yi.
The PLA Eastern Theater Command also announced live-fire drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, cautioning vessels and aircraft to avoid the designated drill areas.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Taiwan’s military detected 13 PLA naval vessels, 15 coast guard vessels, and 71 military aircraft operating around Taiwan. Of the 71 aircraft, 35 crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which is a self-declared area where a country claims the right to identify, locate, and control approaching foreign aircraft, though not part of its territorial airspace by international law.
Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin stated during the press event that the CGA closely monitored the movement of the 15 Chinese patrol boats. He noted that eight of the 15 PLA vessels briefly breached the 24 nautical-mile line but were swiftly warned away.
Lt. Gen. Lien Chih-wei, deputy chief of general staff for operations and planning under the MND, mentioned that Taiwan’s armed forces established an ad hoc emergency operations center following the PLA’s drill announcement early Monday to address developments and safeguard key infrastructure in Taiwan.
