"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, told AFP, indicating the "drills should be over".

China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels to encircle the island on Monday and Tuesday.

They were part of live-fire drills aimed at simulating a blockade of the Taiwan's key ports and assaults on maritime targets.

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

Taiwan's coastguard has maintained a deployment of 11 ships at sea because China Coast Guard vessels "haven't completely left the area yet", said Hsieh.

"We can't let our guard down," he said.