China said it would begin boarding and inspecting vessels in the Taiwan Strait for three days, on the eve of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to Taiwan News.
China's Fujian Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) said Wednesday (April 5) on its Weibo page that starting 9 a.m. it would launch a three-day "special joint patrol and inspection operation" in central and southern parts of the Taiwan Strait. It said that it had dispatched the China Coast Guard vessel "Haixun 06" to take part in the operation.
During the three-day period, the MSA said that it would conduct patrols in the coastal areas of Fujian from Pingtan in the north, which is adjacent to Taiwan's Lienchiang County to Zhangzhou in the south. Also included are Meizhou Bay, Dongshan Bay, and Fujian's Xiamen Bay, the latter of which is across from Taiwan's Kinmen County.
The scope of the patrols and inspections includes the direct Pingtan to Taiwan direct container ship route, ferries along the mini-three-links connecting Chinese coastal cities with Matsu and Kinmen, zones where commercial fishing is conducted, and areas where illegal sand dredging takes place. Also mentioned are underwater construction areas, potentially referring to work on repairing the undersea cable connecting Taiwan Proper with Matsu.
During the operation, MSA officers are to conduct on-site inspections of cross-strait direct cargo ships and construction vessels to "ensure the safety of ships and ensure the orderly operation of key water projects."
In a press release issued at 10 p.m. on Wednesday evening, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the actions by China had "deliberately escalated cross-strait tensions, affected regional peace and stability, clearly violated general maritime practices, and will have a serious adverse impact on the normal operation of traffic between the two sides of the strait." It added that it has expressed its "strong dissatisfaction and lodged serious representations."
The council emphasized that in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, it is promoting the gradual restoration of exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. However, it warned that if China "insists on taking one-sided and unreasonable actions to create obstacles to normal cross-strait exchanges, our side will be forced to take corresponding actions, and the mainland side must bear the related responsibilities that arise thereafter."
Taiwan's Maritime and Port Bureau issued a statement that also condemned China's announcement. It notified ship crews that if they encounter any requests by China's coast guard to conduct "boardings and inspections" they should immediately reject them and notify Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration for protection and to handle the matter.