Taiwan remained on high alert Wednesday following China's massive military drills around the island on Tuesday. It kept its emergency maritime response center?running?, said the head of the island coast guard. China conducted the exercises "Justice Mission 2025", which saw it fire rockets at Taiwan, and place a number of aircraft and warships near the island. This was a display of force that alarmed Western allies such as the European Commission and Britain.

Taipei has condemned the drills, calling them a "threat to security in the region and an egregious provocation".

Kuan Biling, the head of Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council, said that Chinese ships had left Taiwan, but Beijing hadn't formally declared the end of these exercises. "The maritime situation has calmed, as ships and vessels are gradually leaving." She said that the emergency response centre remains operational as China hasn't announced the end of the military exercise. All 11 Chinese coastguard ships have left the waters around Taiwan, according to a Taiwan?coastguard official. Taiwan's security official confirmed that the emergency response centres of the coast guard and military remained active. Taiwan's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that 77 Chinese military planes and 25 navy and Coast Guard vessels were operating around the island over the last 24 hours. It added that 35 of the planes crossed the Taiwan Strait middle line, which separates the two countries. China's largest war games to date in terms of coverage area forced Taiwan to cancel domestic flights, and send warships and jets to monitor. Soldiers were seen conducting rapid-response exercises, including barricading at different locations.

China's official news agency Xinhua has published an article summarizing "three key lessons" from the drills. The drills began 11 days after Washington announced a record $11.1billion arms package for Taiwan. The article summarized the "encirclement simulation" as the People's Liberation Army's capability to "press and confine separatist forces, while denying external interference - an approach that can be summarised by "sealing internal and blocking externally".

China has claimed democratically governed Taiwan to be its territory, and it hasn't ruled out the use of force to bring it under Chinese control. Taiwan rejects China’s claims.

(source: Reuters)