Under ongoing climate change and rapid urbanization, urban hydrothermal regimes are being reshaped, intensifying drought hazards and increasing stress on urban forests. Yet, systematic assessments of drought-induced stability dynamics of urban vegetation remain limited. We identified drought events across 330 Chinese cities during 2000-2022 and quantified vegetation resistance and resilience using multi-source remote sensing data. Pronounced latitudinal divergence emerged: high-latitude cities showed lower resistance but higher resilience, whereas low-latitude cities exhibited stronger resistance but weaker recovery. Across climatic zones, resistance was greater in humid and arid cities, whereas resilience was stronger in sub-humid and semi-arid cities, indicating a climate-dependent trade-off between disturbance buffering and recovery capacity. From 2000-2011 to 2012-2022, resistance increased significantly, whereas resilience declined. Seasonally, resistance was lowest and resilience highest in summer. Drought severity and climatic background-especially drought intensity and duration-primarily governed stability patterns: stronger droughts reduced resistance but enhanced recovery. Anthropogenic factors, including population density, economic development, and CO2 emissions, also played a significant role in shaping vegetation stability. These findings highlight the need for long-term drought monitoring and climate-specific urban forest management to strengthen ecosystem stability in rapidly urbanizing regions.