Taiwan said a Chinese vessel had deliberately damaged an underwater internet cable near the island’s northern coast, causing temporary communications outages. In response, Taiwan asked the South Korean authorities to detain the vessel for an investigation, informs Financial Times.
The incident happened near Keelung Port. The undersea cable, which is part of the Trans-Pacific Express Cable System, is believed to have damaged the cargo vessel Shunxing39, registered under the flag of Cameroon. Despite the official registration of the ship to the company “Jie Yang Trading Limited” from Hong Kong, its director is a citizen of mainland China, Guo Wenjie. Taiwan suggests that the incident may be part of a Chinese strategy to disrupt the island’s communications.
Taiwanese government officials have expressed concern that China could cut off the island’s external communications channels as part of possible annexation actions. Beijing continues to insist on its sovereignty over Taiwan and threatens to use force to establish control.
A representative of Taiwan’s coast guard said that in order to fully investigate the incident, it was necessary to question the captain of the vessel, but this could not be done. Therefore, Taiwan requested assistance from South Korean authorities, which have access to the vessel at its next port of destination. Data from satellite monitoring and the automatic vessel identification system showed that the Shunxing39 anchored exactly in the area where the cable was damaged.
A representative of Taiwan’s national security service called the incident another example of the growing global threat of sabotage against submarine cables. According to him, the vessels involved in such incidents are often outdated and not suitable for commercial operation. He compared Shunxing39 to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” hinting at its possible connection to shady operations.
