China's resolve for unity seen in PLA's drills

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command successfully completed drills codenamed "Justice Mission 2025"around the Taiwan Island on Wednesday. The drills serve as a stern warning to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and external interference, and have shown China's resolve and capabilities to safeguard its sovereignty and national unity, experts said.

By dispatching its Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force troops, the PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted drills in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast, and east of the Taiwan Island.

The drills focused on subjects of sea-air combat readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, blockade of key ports and areas, as well as all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain, said Shi Yi, spokesman for the theater command.

The "Justice Mission 2025" drills came soon after the announcement of the largest US arms sales to Taiwan in history, and against the backdrop of Washington's recently released National Security Strategy, which once again elevated the "first island chain" to a position of central strategic importance, said Warwick Powell, an adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

"It is clear that the PLA is demonstrating its willingness and capacity to defend national sovereignty and in the process show that talk of the 'first island chain' is an outdated dogma," Powell, who also served as a former policy adviser to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, said.

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization, Research and Development in Pakistan, said that China believes in peaceful and cooperative coexistence. China promotes win-win cooperation to achieve people's welfare and lasting peace. Therefore, it is practicing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

"However, it does not mean that China can allow foreign interference in its internal matters and allow anyone to endanger its sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

He said that Western countries led by the US fail to recognize this. "They are actively interfering in the internal affairs of China and undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity by building relations with separatist forces in Taiwan," he said.

Record arms sales

Instead of correcting its mistakes and returning to strict adherence to the one-China principle, the US recently announced a record $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, a move that constitutes a clear violation of the one-China principle, Ramay said.

"In recent years, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has visited Taiwan. A group of US senators also visited this year. These visits are a violation of the one-China principle and successive agreements over the Taiwan question," he added.

Ramay said the drills are a clear indication of China's resolve and capabilities to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

"The exercise shows that no one can challenge or stop China from unifying Taiwan with the motherland," he said.

Henry Chan, a visiting distinguished senior fellow at the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies, said the Taiwan question is strictly China's internal affair and the drills reflect China's firm position against separatism.

He said that China has been very consistent: every country that establishes diplomatic relations with China must subscribe to the one-China principle. The one-China principle also represents the broad consensus of the international community, and legally speaking, the Taiwan question is a strictly domestic issue.

Chan said the "Justice Mission 2025" exercise is a very deep-thought exercise. Within very short notice, China has demonstrated its ability to impose a 360-degree island blockade across a vast area, which indicates that China is well-prepared to respond at any time.

?