In a statement posted yesterday ahead of New Year's celebrations in China, President Xi Jinping remarked on the nation's technological advancement and execution of its latest five-year plan, while calling the reunification of Taiwan "unstoppable." While the statement in itself is hardly new, there are mounting tensions in the area that may raise the level of concern among multiple interested parties.

China has executed military "drills" around Taiwan on multiple occasions over the past few decades, but the latest "Justice Mission 2025" exercises have raised more than a few eyebrows. The drills in 2022 and 2024 already encircled the island and poked into the Philippine Sea, but according to a map in a Reuters article, the past year's operations increased in both their scale and intensity.

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