China’s Military Drill Around Taiwan & India’s Strategic Interests

Syllabus: GS3/Defense & Security

Context

• Recently, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a large-scale military exercise around Taiwan named ‘Justice Mission-2025’.

About the ‘Justice Mission-2025’

• It was a large-scale military exercise conducted by China’s PLA around Taiwan.
• It was the second major drill of the year, launched to demonstrate China’s resolve to defend its sovereignty and national unity while sending a warning to Taiwanese separatist forces and foreign interference, particularly the USA.
• Objectives:
  • Safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity;
  • Deter Taiwan’s independence moves;
  • Counter foreign interference (especially from the U.S. and Japan)
• It is linked to the Trump administration’s $11 billion arms deal with Taiwan, involving self-propelled howitzers, advanced rocket launchers, and missile systems, pending US Congress approval.

Key Features

• Multi-Domain Focus: The exercise emphasized ‘three-dimensional deterrence’ — coordinated operations across land, sea, and air.
  • It aimed to improve the PLA’s blockade capability, combat readiness, and comprehensive superiority.
• Air Operations: Over 130 aircraft sorties were carried out on the first day.
  • 90 of these crossed the Taiwan Strait centreline, a rare and provocative move that broke previous tacit boundaries.
• Rocket and Missile Exercises: On the second day, China conducted long-range rocket firing.
  • 10 rockets landed in Taiwan’s contiguous zone, the closest proximity ever recorded in such drills.

Impact on India’s Strategic Interests

• Strategic Implications for India’s Security Architecture: India views the PLA’s operations near Taiwan as part of a broader pattern of Chinese military expansionism. It is evident from:
  • Aggressive PLA behavior along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, and
  • Assertive posturing in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
• Implications for India’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: The Taiwan drill reinforces India’s belief in the necessity of collective deterrence mechanisms through the QUAD Alliance (India, Japan, the US, and Australia).
  • It underscores the need for greater coordination in maritime domain awareness.
  • It may accelerate joint naval exercises like Malabar, focused on countering blockades and maintaining freedom of navigation.
• Deepening Cooperation with Japan: Japan’s declaration that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would threaten Japan’s survival.
  • India and Japan are likely to intensify bilateral defence and intelligence cooperation, especially under frameworks like India–Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) as an economic alternative to China’s BRI.
• Maritime and Trade Concerns: Any escalation in the Taiwan Strait directly endangers critical Indo-Pacific maritime trade routes, through which over 55% of India’s trade and nearly all energy imports from East Asia transit. It could:
  • Disrupt shipping lanes between India, Japan, and South Korea;
  • Increase insurance and freight costs; and
  • Strain energy supply chains dependent on the South China Sea routes
• India’s Role Expansion: The Indian Navy’s strategic doctrine may evolve to ensure continuous presence and surveillance in the Malacca Strait and South China Sea approaches.
  • India’s cooperation with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines could expand under logistics support agreements and joint patrols.
• Diplomatic Balancing Between China and Taiwan: India officially adheres to the ‘One-China Policy’, but its informal relations with Taiwan have grown stronger, especially in semiconductor technology, trade and investment, and education and skill partnerships.
  • India’s likely course is to maintain strategic ambiguity, publicly reaffirming the One-China stance, while quietly strengthening ties with Taiwan.
• Influence on India’s Defence Modernization: The demonstration of PLA’s joint-force capabilities serves as a wake-up call for India’s own modernization drive:
  • It highlights the need for network-centric warfare systems and integrated tri-service commands.
  • India’s upcoming Theatre Command System could benefit from lessons in PLA’s joint training integration.
  • The PLA’s long-range missile demonstrations near Taiwan may push India to accelerate indigenous missile programs, such as Agni-V MIRV and hypersonic systems.

Conclusion and way forward 

• China’s military drills around Taiwan pose strategic, economic, and security challenges for India, highlighting the need to balance ties with the U.S. and Quad partners while managing relations with China. 
• Risks include disruptions to semiconductor supply chains, threats to regional stability, and the necessity to strengthen India’s naval presence in the Indo-Pacific.
• India is expected to adopt a cautious but firm approach, supporting a rules-based order, deepening Quad partnerships, and bolstering its maritime and technological resilience.

Source: TH