Taiwan stays on high alert as Chinese ships pull back after massive drills

Taiwan stayed on high alert on Wednesday after China staged massive military drills around the island the previous day, keeping its emergency ‍maritime response centre running, the head of the island's coast guard said. The exercises named "Justice Mission 2025" saw China fire dozens of rockets towards Taiwan ‌and deploy a large number of warships and aircraft ‍near the island, in a show of force that drew concern from Western allies including the European Commission and Britain.

Taipei condemned the drills as a threat to regional security and a blatant provocation.

Chinese ships were moving away from Taiwan but Beijing had yet to formally declare the end of the exercises, according to Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council.

"The maritime situation has calmed down, with ships and vessels gradually departing. As China has not announced the conclusion of the military exercises, the emergency response centre remains operational," she said ⁠in a post on Facebook late on Tuesday.

A Taiwan coast guard official told Reuters all 11 Chinese coast guard ships had left waters near Taiwan and were continuing to move away. A Taiwan security official said emergency response centres for the military and coast guard stayed active.

Taiwan's defence ministry on Wednesday said 77 Chinese military aircraft and 25 navy and coast guard vessels had been operating around the island in the past ‌24 hours. Among them, 35 military planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line that separates the two sides, it added.

The drills, China's most extensive war games by coverage area to date, forced Taiwan to cancel dozens of domestic flights and dispatch jets and ‍warships to monitor. Soldiers were seen running rapid-response drills including putting up barricades at various locations.

China's state news agency Xinhua published an article summarising "three ‍key takeaways" from ‍the drills, which began 11 days after the United States ⁠announced a record $11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan.

The ‍simulated "encirclement" demonstrated the People's Liberation Army's ability to "press and contain separatist forces while denying access to external interference – an approach summarised as 'sealing internally and blocking externally'," the article said, citing Zhang Chi, a professor at the PLA National Defence University.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan ⁠as its own territory ‌and has not ruled out using force to take it under Chinese control. Taiwan rejects China's claims.