China launches patrols in the Taiwan Strait, orders inspections of ships as Taiwan says it will not comply

The Chinese government announced a three-day series of patrols in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, ordering that any ships in the area stop for inspection or even boarding.

Taiwan’s maritime authority rejected the order, filing a complaint with Chinese authorities, and has urged its shipping companies to ignore such inspection orders and notify the Taiwanese coast guard immediately should it receive one.

“If the mainland side insists on taking one-sided actions, it will create obstacles to normal exchanges between the two sides. We will be forced to take corresponding measures,” Taiwanese authorities wrote in a statement.

The areas impacted by China’s inspection order could impact passenger and fishing vessels as well as commercial and shipping vessels.

CHINA VOWS ‘STRONG’ MEASURES AFTER MCCARTHY MEETS TAIWAN’S TSAI ING-WEN

The Chinese escalation comes one day after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. China had vowed to take “strong” measures if the two leaders went through with the meeting.

“We will take resolute measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement Thursday morning.

PELOSI PRAISES MCCARTHY’S ‘LEADERSHIP’ AFTER TAIWAN MEETING

McCarthy and Tsai each gave carefully-worded statements during their meeting at the Reagan Library in Southern California. The pair spoke highly of the relationship between “the people” of Taiwan and the U.S. The language seeks to avoid complications arising from the Taiwan Relations Act, which stipulates that Taiwan and the U.S. cannot have formal diplomatic relations.

“America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering and bipartisan,” McCarthy said at a news conference.

Taiwan split from mainland China in 1949 after pro-democratic forces based there lost a civil war to the Chinese Communist Party.