Taiwan reports that China is withdrawing its ships after military exercises near the island

The military vessels that China had sent to conduct maneuvers around Taiwan began leaving the area, a move that suggests the exercises "may have concluded," the island's Coast Guard said Wednesday, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

China's communist regime fired missiles and mobilized dozens of fighter jets, Navy ships and Coast Guard vessels between Monday and Tuesday to encircle Taiwan, an island with an independent administration, armed forces and currency, whose main security backing is the United States.

According to Beijing authorities, the live-fire maneuvers were intended to recreate an encirclement of Taiwan's most important ports and attacks against maritime targets on the island, which it has warned it could control even through the use of force.

However, Taipei has described the two days of maneuvers as "highly provocative and reckless," as well as defending that they failed to impose a siege on its territory.

Some ships are still in the area

"Warships and coast guard vessels are withdrawing, but some are still loitering outside the 24-nautical-mile line," Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy director general of Taiwan's coast guard, told AFP on Wednesday.

"The exercises should have ended," he specified.

Taiwan's coast guard, however, is keeping 11 vessels deployed, as some Chinese Coast Guard vessels "have not yet completely left the area," the official added.

"We cannot let our guard down," he said, while Beijing has yet to publicly announce the end of the exercises.

On his side, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te warned Wednesday that the Chinese military maneuvers "are not an isolated incident" and pose "significant risks" to the region, "shipping, trade and peace in the world."

Reunification "unstoppable," says Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that "the reunification of the motherland (...) is unstoppable" after two days of military exercises around Taiwan.

"The reunification of our homeland, a trend of these times, is unstoppable," Xi said in his year-end message to the nation, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.