‘Live-fire drills’: China conducts second day of war games around Taiwan

China’s military said it has simulated attacks on high-value targets in Taiwan, including ports and energy facilities, as it carried out “live-fire” military drills around the self-ruled island on the second day of war-game exercises.

The drills on Wednesday, part of an operation titled “Strait Thunder-2025A”, were conducted in the middle and southern parts of the Taiwan Strait as well as the East China Sea, the military said.

“Long-range live-fire drills” were carried out in order to practise hitting “simulated targets of key ports and energy facilities” during the exercises, the military said.

The aim was to “test the troops’ capabilities” in areas such as “blockade and control, and precision strikes on key targets”, said Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman of the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command.

China’s Shandong aircraft carrier was also deployed in the drills, testing the ability to “blockade” Taiwan by integrating naval and air power, the Eastern Theatre Command said.

China’s military published a video of what it said were the live-fire drills that showed rockets, rather than ballistic missiles, being launched and hitting targets on land, and an animation of explosions over Taiwanese cities including Tainan, Hualien and Taichung, all home to military bases and ports.

A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to land at the Hsinchu Airbase in Hsinchu on April 2, 2025 [I-Hwa Cheng/AFP]

Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te condemned the drills while the island’s defence ministry said China had deployed 21 warships around the island, including the Shandong carrier group, and 71 aircraft and four coastguard vessels on Tuesday.

“China’s blatant military provocations not only threaten peace in the #Taiwan Strait but also undermine security in the entire region, as evidenced by drills near Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Philippines & the SCS [South China Sea]. We strongly condemn China’s escalatory behaviour,” Taiwan’s Presidential Office said in a post on X.

On Wednesday, Taiwan said that 76 Chinese military aircraft and 19 naval or government ships had entered waters and airspace near the island over the previous 24 hours, with 37 of the planes crossing the centre line in the 160-kilometre (110-mile) wide Taiwan Strait that forms an unofficial border with mainland China, but which Beijing refuses to acknowledge.

The Shandong aircraft carrier group had also entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, a self-defined security area tracked by the Taiwanese military.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the exercises were not the first conducted by China around Taiwan but these latest drills “show how serious Beijing is about honing their capability to blockade the island of Taiwan should they deem necessary”.

“Beijing sees Taiwan, the democratic ruled island, as a breakaway Chinese province, and President Xi Jinping has said time and time again, that whether by peaceful means or by force, it will be unified again with mainland China,” Yu said.

“Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te has condemned the drills. He says, this is only demonstrating that China is a troublemaker in this region,” Yu added.

The drills are expected to continue until Thursday night and China’s Maritime Safety Administration has announced that an area off the northern part of the eastern province of Zhejiang, more than 500km (310 miles) from Taiwan, will be closed for shipping due to military operations.