December 30th, 2025: China’s Military Encircles Taiwan & Russia Accuses Ukraine Of Foul Play
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It's Tuesday, the 30th of December. Well, look at that. Two days left in what has been a very eventful 2025. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, China encircles Taiwan with the largest military exercises in its history, raising an interesting question. At what point does an exercise stop being just an exercise and start becoming the real thing? I'll have the details. Later in the show, Russia claims Ukraine tried to carry out a drone attack on Russian President Putin's residence. That's not very neighborly, with Moscow now hinting at taking a tougher negotiating position, while Kiev flatly dismisses the accusation as a lie.
And not to state the obvious, but I think I'm about to, what else could Moscow do to take a tougher negotiating position than the one they've already got? Plus, President Trump meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Florida to push for movement on the stalled Gaza ceasefire. And in today's Back of the Brief, Kim Jong-un wraps up the year by throwing his teddy out of the crib again. That's right. North Korea says it just tested a bunch of long-range cruise missiles. Huzzah and Happy New Year. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. China has just launched what both Beijing and outside observers are calling the largest military exercises that the Chinese military has ever conducted around Taiwan. Over the past several days, the People's Liberation Army has launched what it's calling Justice Mission 2025.
That's got a quaint ring to it, doesn't it? Surging warships and fighter jets, bombers, drones and missile units into multiple operating zones surrounding Taiwan. The scope is massive. These drills aren't confined to one side of the island or just one service branch of the PLA. They're coordinated across sea and air and rocket forces, creating a near-complete military ring around Taiwan. According to Taiwanese officials, dozens of Chinese naval vessels and a very large number of military aircraft have been involved. some operating closer to Taiwan than in previous exercises. Commercial air traffic has been rerouted. Shipping's been warned away from certain zones. Live fire components are reportedly included, with the Chinese government declaring several no-fly zones as they conduct a variety of missile launches.
And Beijing hasn't been subtle with their messaging. Chinese state media says these drills are, quote, a stern warning to Taiwan's leadership and to what China calls, quote, external interference. That's a not-so-subtle reference to the U.S. From Beijing's perspective, this is about deterrence, sovereignty, and control of escalation. From Taiwan's perspective, though, it's about survival. Taipei has placed its forces on heightened alert, scrambling aircraft and tracking Chinese movements closely. Taiwanese officials are careful with their language, but the concern is obvious. When drills reach this size and complexity, they stop looking like political theater and start looking like rehearsals. And that brings us to the bigger question, why these exercises matter so much and why intelligence agencies and defense planners take them seriously every single time.
Military exercises aren't just about training individual units. They're about testing command and control, logistics, communications, and timing under realistic conditions. When you see an operation like this, multiple services operating simultaneously and circling an island, practicing interdiction and control of air and sea space, well, you're watching a simulation of how a real conflict would begin. In Taiwan's case, that matters because the most likely opening move in any real confrontation won't be an immediate amphibious invasion.
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