China is spreading cheer during this Christmas season with a new round of live-fire drills designed to intimidate Taiwan and others (The Guardian, December 29, 2025).
The Chinese Communist Party says the military exercise is “a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.”
The Taiwan Defense Ministry says: “The Chinese Communist Party’s targeted military exercises further confirm its nature as an aggressor and the biggest destroyer of peace.”
The new set of live-fire drills, called Justice Mission 2025 by China, comes about nine months after another big two-day military exercise featuring live fire, Straight Thunder 2025A. Justice Mission marks China’s “sixth major round of war games since 2022 after then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the nation.”
Although some military exercises, like these two, are intended to especially harass, the news gives the impression that the People’s Liberation Army conducts military drills or incursions of some kind, large or small, around Taiwan almost nonstop.
Gray zone actors
Even as the People’s Republic practices conquest in the Strait this week, lawmakers of the Republic of China’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party are proposing legislation to “counter Beijing’s efforts to infiltrate Taiwan by funding local social media influencers for ‘united front’ propaganda.”
In part, the legislation would “introduce the legal designation of ‘gray zone actors’ and mandate that such actors proactively disclose their funding sources. Those who fail to file disclosures or submit false information would face up to three years in prison and fines of up to NT$5 million (US$158,957).”
The mandate would apply to participants in united front activities associated with “foreign hostile forces” and to persons who facilitate such activities or propagandize for united front organizations.
The law would also prohibit anybody from donating to gray zone actors who are working for “infiltration sources.”
