Beijing, China - China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter aircraft and navy vessels around Taiwan on Tuesday for a second day of live-fire drills simulating a blockade of the island's key ports and assaults on maritime targets.

The two-day war games, code-named Justice Mission 2025, began Monday, throwing Taiwanese traffic into chaos.

China claims Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and has refused to rule out military action to seize the island democracy.

AFP journalists in Pingtan – a Chinese island that is the closest point to Taiwan's main island – saw a volley of rockets blast into the air on Tuesday morning at around 9:00 AM local time, leaving trails of white smoke.

China China sparks alarm and chaos in Taiwan with large-scale military drills simulating blockade

At least 10 rockets were launched in quick succession, each sending a booming sound reverberating throughout Pingtan as they soared across the sky.

Tourists rushed towards wooden barricades overlooking the sea, whipping out their phones to snap photos and videos of the rockets.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) said in a statement shortly after that it had "conducted long-range live fire drills in the waters to the north of the Taiwan Island and achieved desired effects."

The latest show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the US and a warning from Japan's prime minister that the use of force against Taiwan could draw a military response from Tokyo.

President Donald Trump said he was not concerned about the drills, brushing aside the possibility of counterpart Xi Jinping ordering an invasion of Taiwan.

"I don't believe he's going to be doing it," Trump said.

China China responds with fury after Taiwan announces one of the biggest ever weapons deals with US

China's top diplomat Wang Yi said Tuesday in a speech in Beijing that China would "forcefully counter" large-scale US weapons sales to Taiwan, adding that any attempt to obstruct China's unification with the island "will inevitably end in failure."

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te vowed Tuesday in a Facebook post that the territory would not be "escalating the conflict" or provoke disputes.

China on Tuesday morning said 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 the Taiwan Island "tested capabilities of sea-air coordination and integrated blockade and control."