Taiwan has asked the South Korean authorities to assist in the investigation of an incident with a Chinese ship that allegedly damaged an underwater communication cable off the island's northern coast. This was reported by the Financial Times, according to UNN.
Details
On Saturday, Taiwanese telecommunications operator Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwanese Coast Guard reported that the cargo ship Shunxing39 had likely damaged a communications cable near Keelung port on Taiwan's northern coast on the morning of January 3.
This follows incidents involving damage to fiber-optic cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in October and November 2023, which raised concerns about the security of strategic maritime infrastructure. These events have once again demonstrated the difficulty in identifying those responsible for sabotage and the need to strengthen international cooperation to protect submarine communications networks.
The latest cable damage case has drawn attention to potential threats to Taiwan. Although the cable vessel was flying the flag of Cameroon, Taiwanese officials claim that it belongs to Jie Yang Trading Limited of Hong Kong, whose head is a mainland Chinese citizen, Guo Wenjie.
Chunghwa Telecom reported that data transmission was immediately restored by rerouting data to other international submarine cables. But Taipei is concerned that China could covertly interrupt Taiwan's external communication channels in any potential attempt to annex the country. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and has threatened to take it by force if necessary. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, representatives of Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwanese government told the Financial Times that the damaged cable is part of the Trans-Pacific Express cable system. The submarine internet cable connecting Taiwan to the US west coast belongs to an international consortium. In addition to Chunghwa, it includes the American operator AT&T, Japan's NTT, Korea Telecom, and Chinese operators China Telecom and China Unicom.
As we were unable to question the captain, we asked the South Korean authorities to assist with the investigation at the next port of call,
A Taiwanese national security official said the ship was due to arrive in Busan within the next few days. Taiwan's coast guard and other government officials said that automatic ship identification system signal tracking and satellite data showed that the Shunxing39 had pulled anchor at the location where the cable was severed.
According to officials, the Coast Guard ship was conducting an external inspection of the vessel and establishing radio contact with the captain, whose officials were unable to board due to bad weather and could not order his arrest for further investigation in accordance with international law.
This is another case of a very disturbing global trend of sabotage against submarine cables," said a senior Taiwanese national security official. The ships involved in these incidents tend to be outdated vessels that are not particularly distinctive. This one is also in very poor condition. It looks like ships that are part of the Russian "shadow fleet"
According to MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime analytics company, the Shunxing39 has been crossing waters off the northern coast of Taiwan since December 1.
Recall
The Cameroon-flagged cargo ship Shunxing 39, owned by a Chinese company, damaged a communication cable near the port of Keelung. Taiwan has asked South Korea for assistance in investigating the incident.