Taiwan stayed on high alert on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) 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 (December 31).

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 (December 31) 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.

Britain said on ​Tuesday (December 30, 2025) that China’s military exercises ‌around Taiwan increased ​the risk of escalation, and reiterated a call for restraint.

“China’s military exercises around Taiwan this week increase cross-strait tensions and the risk ​of escalation,” a foreign office ⁠spokesperson said in a statement.

“We consider the Taiwan issue one ​to be ⁠settled peacefully by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait through constructive ‌dialogue, without the threat ‌or use of force or coercion. We do ‍not support any unilateral attempts to change the status ‍quo or any activity that risks destabilising it.”

“We continue to call for restraint and the avoidance of any further actions that risk undermining peace and ⁠stability.”

The Chinese embassy in Britain said the ​foreign office remarks were “a misrepresentation ⁠of the facts, a manipulation of the truth.”