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Micaela Burrow
Daily Caller News Foundation
Beijing’s maritime security administration said Wednesday it would impose a three-day patrol of the waters surrounding Taiwan that could include arresting and boarding ships, Reuters reported.
The move comes after Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday and a congressional delegation touched down on the self-ruling island Thursday to support Taiwan in the midst of Chinese aggression, according to NBC News. A maritime force operating out of the Fujian province in southeastern China will transit waters on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to intercept and conduct “on site inspections of cargo ships and construction vessels, according to Reuters.
The patrol will “ensure the safety of vessel navigation and ensure the safe and orderly operation of key projects on water,” China’s Fujian maritime safety administration said in a statement on a widely used Chinese social media account.
Taiwan’s Transport Ministry’s Maritime and Ports Bureau said late Wednesday it formally protested China’s move and instructed the targeted shipping operators to resist requests from Chinese patrol ships to board, and to contact the island’s coast guard for assistance, Reuters reported.
