Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London.
I'm Julian Moricke.
Justice Mission 2025.
That's what the Chinese government is calling a series of large-scale military exercises taking place around Taiwan and due to last for several days.
Chinese media published a map illustrating where drills are happening.
They show the island surrounded by large areas where military activity is going on.
The start of this latest exercise was announced by a spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Starting from December 29th, PLA Eastern Theater Command is dispatching its army, navy,
air force and rocket force troops in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north to conduct joint military drills codenamed Justice Mission 2025.
It is a stern warning against Taiwan independent separatist forces.
Beijing sees the island as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this.
But many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation,
although most are in favour of maintaining the status quo where Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.
China has blamed Taiwan's governing DPP party for causing tension in the region,
accusing the Taiwanese government of turning the island into what it calls a powder keg.
and an ammunition depot.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Taiwanese president called on China to calm the situation,
asking the Chinese authorities to, in her words, exercise rational self-restraint.
Well,
the start of the exercise prompted the Taiwanese government to mobilize troops to rehearse repelling a potential Chinese attack.