More than 100,000 air passengers will face delays over China drills, Taiwan warns

29 Dec 2025, 13:10 · France 24

Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration said more than 100,000 air passengers will be affected by the live-fire drills that China launched around the island on Monday.

"Tomorrow ... scheduled flights, including about 296 international departures, around 265 international arrivals and roughly 296 transit flights," will be affected, the administration said, adding it anticipated the hitches would snarl travel for "more than 100,000 passengers".

China's military on Monday dispatched air, navy and rocket troops to conduct joint military drills around the island of Taiwan, a move Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing its forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace".

The first of two days of drills came after Beijing expressed anger at US arms sales to the territory and a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that the world’s second-biggest economy says must come under its rule. The Chinese military did not mention the United States and Japan in its statement on Monday morning.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a post on X that rapid response exercises were under way, with forces on high alert to defend the island. In a separate statement, it said it had deployed appropriate forces in response, conducting combat readiness drills.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s targeted military exercises further confirm its nature as an aggressor and the biggest destroyer of peace,” the ministry said.

Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson of China's People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command, said the drills would be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)