Chinese warships and coastguard vessels are withdrawing from waters around Taiwan, the island's coastguard said Wednesday, as China announced it had "successfully completed" military drills that included live-fire exercises aimed at simulating a blockade of key ports and assaults on maritime targets.
"The PLA Eastern Theater Command has successfully completed 'Justice Mission 2025' drills," spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said in a statement, referring to the People's Liberation Army.
Troops would keep training to "resolutely thwart the attempts of 'Taiwan Independence' separatists and external intervention", he said.
China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels around Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday.
Taipei slammed the war games as "highly provocative and reckless" and said they failed to impose a blockade.
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China's Communist Party has never ruled democratic Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to annex it.
China's President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that "reunification ... is unstoppable" as he addressed the nation shortly after Beijing's military announced the end of the live-fire drills.
"The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable," Xi said in his 2026 New Year message from Beijing, state news agency Xinhua reported.
'Significant risks'
"The warships and coastguard vessels are withdrawing, but a few are still lingering outside the 24-nautical-mile line," Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy director-general of Taiwan's coastguard, said, indicating the "drills should be over". His remarks came before Beijing officially announced the end of the exercises.
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.
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te warned Wednesday that Chinese drills targeting the island "are not an isolated incident" and pose "significant risks" to the region.
"China's authoritarian expansion and escalating coercion pose significant risks to regional stability and also impact global shipping, trade and peace," he said at a promotion and rank conferment ceremony for military officers in Taipei.
China's drills followed a historic round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan's main security backer, and comments from Japan's prime minister that the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.
International criticism
There has been a chorus of criticism of China's drills from Taipei's allies.
Japan said Wednesday that China's military exercises "increase tensions" across the Taiwan Strait, and that it had expressed its "concerns" to Beijing.
Australia's foreign ministry condemned the "destabilising" drills, saying it had raised concerns with Beijing counterparts.
And the Philippines' defence department said it was "deeply concerned" over drills that threatened to "undermine regional peace and stability".
Beijing said criticism of its exercises was "irresponsible".
"These countries and institutions are turning a blind eye to the separatist forces in Taiwan attempting to achieve independence through military means," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing Wednesday.
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"Yet, they are making irresponsible criticisms of China's necessary and just actions to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, distorting facts and confusing right and wrong, which is utterly hypocritical."
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.
The drills were held as US ambassador to China David Perdue met with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan, which are part of the Quad group, seen as a counter to Beijing.
"The Quad is a force for good working to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific," Perdue said Tuesday in a post on X, alongside a photo of the four ambassadors in Beijing.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)