Chinese ships 'withdrawing' after drills: Taiwan

Chinese warships and coastguard vessels are withdrawing from waters around Taiwan, the island's coastguard has said, with Beijing's military drills appearing to be "over".

"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 on Wednesday, indicating the "drills should be over".

Taiwan's coastguard has maintained a deployment of 11 ships at sea because China Coast Guard vessels "haven't completely left the area yet" and "we can't let our guard down," he said.

Beijing has not yet publicly declared the drills to be finished.

China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels around the island on Monday and Tuesday in live-fire drills aimed at simulating a blockade of Taiwan's key ports and assaults on maritime targets.

Taipei, which slammed the two-day war games as "highly provocative and reckless", said the manoeuvre failed to impose a blockade on the island.

China has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

China's show of force follows a bumper 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.

There has been a chorus of international criticism of China's drills.

Irresponsible criticisms

Japan said on 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 also condemned on Wednesday China's "destabilising" military drills around Taiwan, saying it had raised concerns with Beijing counterparts.

Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office, however, called the exercises a "stern warning to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces and interfering external forces".

"They are a necessary and just measure to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," TAO spokesperson Zhang Han told a news conference on Wednesday.

However, Beijing slammed on Wednesday countries including Japan and Australia for their "irresponsible" criticism of the military drills.

"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 reporters at a news briefing.

"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 said on Tuesday it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters and bombers "to conduct drills on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, simulated strikes, assault on maritime targets, as well as anti-air and anti-submarine operations".

A statement from the PLA's Eastern Theater Command said the exercises in the waters to the north and south of Taiwan "tested capabilities of sea-air coordination and integrated blockade and control".

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 Indopacific," Perdue said Tuesday in a post on X, alongside a photo of the four ambassadors in Beijing.