China Announces Sanctions, Military Drills Near Taiwan

China spent the past few days saber rattling in response to US arm sales to Taiwan. It started on Friday when China announced sanctions against US arms manufacturers.

China announced sanctions against 20 US defense companies and 10 senior executives on Friday, citing US arms sales to Taiwan as its motive.

In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said its assets within China, including movable and immovable properties, would be frozen and that domestic organizations and individuals would be prohibited from doing business with them.

Individuals named on the list would also be denied visas and entry to the country, the ministry added.

Is it really a punishment to announce that US defense contractors won’t be allowed to set foot in China. Palmer Luckey of Anduril didn’t seem to think so. He mocked the announcement on X, including a fake statuette designed to offend Xi Jinping.

Late last night, I received a final Christmas gift: official notification from the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs that I, Palmer Luckey (Male), have been personally sanctioned as a dangerous actor.

I want to thank my family, my team, and my Lord Jesus Christ for this award.… pic.twitter.com/iOlJ4q3drC

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) December 26, 2025

I want to thank my family, my team, and my Lord Jesus Christ for this award.  Anduril has been sanctioned for a while now, as have many of my peers, but it means so much to finally have my non-existent Chinese assets seized and repurposed.  The sanctions also prohibit all Chinese nationals from engaging with me in any way, which should really clear up my social media feeds.

Merry Christmas!

That was Friday. Today, China announced it was planning to surround Taiwan with military drills that will take place tomorrow.

China has announced it will hold military drills around Taiwan simulating the seizure and blockade of the island’s key areas, as a warning against “separatist forces”.

The army, navy, air force and rocket force would be dispatched for the drills scheduled for Tuesday, which include live-fire exercises, the Chinese military said.

Codenamed “Justice Mission 2025”, the drills come days after the US announced the sale of one of its largest weapons packages to Taiwan worth $11bn (£8.2bn). That move drew sharp protest from Beijing which in turn sanctioned US defence firms…

In a post on Weibo, the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command – in charge of the Taiwan Strait – described the upcoming military exercise as a “shield of justice”.

“All those plotting independence will be annihilated upon encountering the shield!” the post read.

China wants to talk tough and make an impression but US estimates suggest they still aren’t in a position to actually seize Taiwan.

…a Pentagon report released last week said that China’s leaders were still not confident of being able to seize Taiwan by force. The exercises are a pallid imitation of the scale, complexity and risks that an actual blockade would entail.

In fact, the duration of these exercises suggests they want this over with quickly.

China’s leaders appeared to want the latest exercises to end quickly after making their point, said Shu Hsiao-huang, a researcher at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, which is supported by Taiwan’s defense ministry. He noted that the live-fire exclusion zones will be in force from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

“That’s a very short window and doesn’t seem to allow for higher-intensity military activities,” he said.

If China does ever get around to launching a real invasion, it might start exactly this way, with an announcement of some sort of drills that would give cover for them to move ships and planes into place. No doubt we have satellites watching carefully to make sure these are just drills.

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