Taiwan on high alert as China holds military drills
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Taiwan has put its forces on high alert after China began a live-fire rehearsal of a blockade of the island. Is Beijing responding to a recent US-Taiwan arms deal? Also in the programme: a special report from Myanmar, where some people have been voting in elections for the first time since a military coup five years ago; and how the discovery of a silver coin has excited historians in Scotland. (Photo: Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets prepare for takeoff at an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, 29 December 2025. Reaction in Taiwan after China announces live fire drill around Taiwan - 29 Dec 2025. Credit: Photo by Ritchie B Tongo/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.9 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London. |
| 0:13.8 | I'm Julia Morica. |
| 0:15.9 | Justice Mission 2025, that's what the Chinese government is calling a series of large-scale military exercises, |
| 0:22.4 | taking place around Taiwan and due to last for several days. |
| 0:26.5 | Chinese media published a map illustrating where drills are happening. |
| 0:29.9 | They show the islands surrounded by large areas where military activity is going on. |
| 0:35.5 | The start of this latest exercise was announced by a spokesman for the Chinese |
| 0:39.6 | People's Liberation Army. Starting from December 29th, PLA Eastern Theater Command is dispatching its army, |
| 0:52.2 | Navy, Air Force and rocket force troops in the Taiwan |
| 0:55.2 | Strait and areas to the north to conduct joint military drills codenamed Justice Mission |
| 1:01.0 | 2025. It is a stern warning against Taiwan independent separatist forces. |
| 1:06.8 | Well, Beijing sees the island as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of China |
| 1:11.0 | and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this. |
| 1:14.3 | But many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation, |
| 1:18.2 | although most are in favour of maintaining the status quo, |
| 1:21.4 | where Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it. |
| 1:26.4 | China has blamed Taiwan's governing DPP party for causing |
| 1:30.2 | tension in the region, accusing the Taiwanese government of turning the island into what it calls a powder keg |
| 1:36.1 | and an ammunition depot. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Taiwanese president called on China |
| 1:41.6 | to calm the situation, asking the Chinese authorities to, in her words, exercise rational self-restraint. |
| 1:49.0 | Well, the start of the exercise prompted the Taiwanese government to mobilize troops to rehearse repelling a potential Chinese attack. |
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