Axios: Beijing pushes Taiwan Strait claims
The U.S. State Department says it's "monitoring closely" a Chinese maritime operation in the Taiwan Strait this week that includes boarding and inspecting ships.
Why it matters: Officials in Taipei believe the unprecedented action in the Taiwan Strait is in reprisal for their president's D.C. meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
* Taiwan's Maritime and Port Bureau said it had told ship crews not to comply with Chinese maritime "boardings and inspections" requests and instead contact the island's coast guard for protection.
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Update #1: Taiwan Rejects China's Plan To Board and Inspect Merchant Ships (Newsweek)
Update #2: China to inspect ships in Taiwan Strait, Taiwan says won't cooperate (Reuters)
WNU Editor: This announcement by Beijing was done before this weekends military exercises around Taiwan. As of this posting, there has been no reports of China inspecting any ships in the Taiwan Strait.