• China’s top diplomat blasts US arms sale to Taiwan as military drills around the island unfold
• China flexes blockade capabilities near Taiwan on second day of military drills

China’s top diplomat blasts US arms sale to Taiwan as military drills around the island unfold

https://apnews.com/article/china-taiwan-japan-us-arms-sales-02c9fbe341e9bd10953b29c2e981a174France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands before their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Pedro Pardo/Pool Photo via AP)

2025-12-30T06:25:48Z

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister on Tuesday slammed a record U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as Beijing conducted the second day of military drills around the island it has long claimed as its own.

Wang Yi, the most senior Chinese official to comment on the sales so far, also blasted the “pro-independence forces in Taiwan” and Japan’s leaders during an end-of-the-year diplomatic event in Beijing.

“In response to the continuous provocations by pro-independence forces in Taiwan and the large-scale U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, we must resolutely oppose and strongly counter them,” Wang said while reviewing a year of diplomacy by Asia’s largest and most influential nation.

He reiterated China’s aim for a “complete reunification” with Taiwan, a self-ruled island that split from China during a civil war in 1949 and evolved into a multiparty democracy.

Taiwan’s government argues the island was never part of China in its current form under the Communist Party and Beijing’s sovereignty claims are illegitimate.

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Military package rankles China

The package valued at more than $11 billion that was announced earlier this month by the U.S. State Department amounts to the largest U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. It includes missiles, drones, artillery systems and military software.

The U.S. is obligated by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on the self-ruled island to buy more U.S. military equipment, even suggesting Taiwan should spend up to 10% of its GDP on defense.

China responded to the sale by launching two days of military drills around Taiwan on Monday. The exercises also are largely seen as a rebuke to Sanae Takaichi, the new Japanese prime minister, who inflamed Beijing last month by implying Japan could militarily intervene over Taiwan.

“Japan, which launched the war of aggression against China, not only fails to deeply reflect on the numerous crimes it committed, but its current leaders also openly challenge China’s territorial sovereignty, the historical conclusions of World War II and the postwar international order,” Wang said, adding that China “must be highly vigilant against the resurgence of Japanese militarism.”

Other diplomatic initiatives reviewed

In his speech reviewing China’s diplomatic highlights for the year, Wang also mentioned Israel’s war in Gaza, welcoming international efforts to facilitate a ceasefire but insisting that more needs to be done.

“The world still owes Palestine justice,” Wang said. “The Palestinian question cannot be marginalized again, and the Palestinian people’s cause for democratic and legitimate rights cannot end in vain.”

China maintains strong relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority and backs the two-state solution, under which Israel and Palestine would exist as independent states.

Wang also emphasized China’s aim to facilitate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Beijing says it is impartial in the war but in practice signals support for Moscow through frequent state visits and joint military drills.

Wang mediated talks between top diplomats from Thailand and Cambodia earlier this week, which the leaders said helped consolidate a ceasefire between the two neighbors after months of fighting.

The meetings represented China’s latest efforts to strengthen its role as an international mediator and particularly its influence in Asian regional crises. As China grows into an economic and political force globally, Beijing has spent the past decade and more working in various ways to increase its voice as a third party in diplomatic matters.

SIMINA MISTREANU Mistreanu is a Greater China reporter for The Associated Press, based in Taipei, Taiwan. She has reported on China since 2015. twitter mailto

China flexes blockade capabilities near Taiwan on second day of military drills

https://apnews.com/article/china-military-drills-taiwan-us-japan-cd6600c23c206385822c733dc2016217A Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jet runs past an airplane fort at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

2025-12-30T05:48:56Z

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army staged a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, unleashing a live-fire show of force as part of what it called “Justice Mission 2025” to demonstrate its ability to deter any external armed support for the self-ruled island that it has long insisted is part of its sovereign territory.

The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command sent destroyers, frigates, fighters and bombers to the waters to the north and south of the island to test its ability in sea-air coordination and blockading. Its ground forces carried out long-range, live-fire drills in the waters to the island’s north, and achieved what command spokesperson Li Xi called “desired effects.”

The maneuvers increased tension around the Taiwan Strait as 2025 drew to a close, but the impact extended beyond military pressure into everyday life. Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration was notified that seven temporary “dangerous zones” had been set up around the strait, affecting international and domestic air travelers. It was not immediately clear whether that involved flight cancellations as opposed to delays.

Xinhua, China’s official news agency, posted a commentary late Monday saying the drills sent an unequivocal message: That Beijing is always ready to prevent anything that tries to split Taiwan from China. Each escalation, it said, would be met with stronger countermeasures.

“By currying favor with the United States through obsequious loyalty gestures and promoting arms purchases, the DPP is binding the entire island of Taiwan to its catastrophic secessionist chariot, disregarding public opinion,” it wrote, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

130 aircraft and a Chinese balloon detected

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 130 aircraft, including fighters and bombers, 14 military ships and eight other official ships around the island between 6 a.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday. Its forces kept monitoring the development and deployed aircraft, navy ships and coastal missile systems in response. Ninety of the Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the strait and entered Taiwan’s “air defense identification zone.” A Chinese balloon was also spotted, it said.

It said the PLA long-range artillery unit in Fujian, a southeastern Chinese province, fired live rounds toward a target zone north of the island, with impact zones scattered around the line, 44 kilometers (27 miles) off its coast.

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the Chinese troops’ actions were highly provocative, undermined regional stability and posed security threats and disruptions to passing ships, trade activities and flight routes.

While Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a near-daily basis, the scale of these exercises escalated tensions between both sides. China claims the island off its southeastern coast as sovereign territory and has vowed to seize it, by force if necessary.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said the drills served as a stern warning to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and external forces, without naming any countries.

He criticized Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te ‘s administration for what it called pandering to external forces and pursuing independence, saying that was the root cause of disrupting the status quo in the strait and escalating tensions.

Last week, Beijing imposed sanctions against 20 defense-related U.S. companies and 10 executives, following a Washington announcement of large-scale arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion. Those sales still require approval by the U.S. Congress.

Under U.S. law, Washington is obligated to assist Taipei with its defense, a point that has become increasingly contentious with China over the years.

Trump not worried

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that while he was not informed of the military exercise in advance, neither was he particularly worried about it. He touted his “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and suggested he didn’t think Xi was going to attack Taiwan.

The Taiwan issue also heightened China-Japan tensions. Beijing has expressed anger at a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China takes action against the democratically ruled island. There remains widespread overall suspicion in China about Japan that goes back generations to when imperial Japan brutally took over parts of China in the years before World War II.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when the Communist Party rose to power in Beijing following a civil war. Defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan, which later transitioned from martial law to multiparty democracy.

Facing the drills, Taiwan on Monday called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.” It cautioned carrying live-fire exercises around the strait could bring more complex challenges to the international community and neighboring countries.

Stoking the tensions, China’s Eastern Theater Command posted a series of online images and videos carrying provocative language throughout the exercises. In one video titled “So Near, So Beautiful — Anytime to Taipei,” it showed its footage of Taipei 101, a landmark of Taiwan’s capital city.

KANIS LEUNG Leung covers Hong Kong, Macao and mainland China for The Associated Press. She is based in Hong Kong. twitter

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