Taiwan stops Chinese ship over suspected submarine cable cutting

Taiwan stops Chinese ship over suspected submarine cable cutting

The Taiwanese coast guard arrested a cargo ship and its Chinese crew on Tuesday. It is being investigated whether the ship intentionally damaged an undersea internet cable. This could represent a further breach of the island's lines of communication.

Details about the incident

The suspicious ship named Hong Tai, which sails under the flag of the West African country of Togo and is financed with Chinese funds, had remained near the cable off the southwest coast of Taiwan since Saturday evening. The Taiwan Coast Guard said there was no response from the ship after several radio messages.

A short time after the ship anchored in the early hours of Tuesday, Taiwanese telecommunications company Chunghwa Telecom discovered that the cable had been severed.

Interception and investigation

The coast guard said it intercepted and boarded the ship before escorting it back to port in the city of Tainan to investigate. Taiwanese authorities see the possibility of so-called “gray zone operations” by China, involving cooperative or subversive actions that fall below the threshold of war.

“Whether this was an intentional act of sabotage or a mere mishap requires further investigation,” the Coast Guard said in the statement, adding that the case is now being investigated by prosecutors in accordance with national security guidelines.

Previous incidents

In recent years, several undersea telecommunications cables around Taiwan have suffered suspicious damage. In January, Taiwanese authorities said a China-linked cargo ship may have damaged an international undersea cable off the island's northern coast.

In 2023, Chinese ships were blamed for two incidents in which cables connecting Taiwan's main island to the offshore islands of Matsu were damaged, resulting in an internet outage. However, authorities remained vague and did not comment more clearly on any possible intent behind these actions.

Concern about gray area activities

These incidents have raised concerns among Taiwanese authorities about "gray zone activities" that could threaten the island's ability to access the internet and communicate with the outside world. These concerns come as Taiwan increasingly faces intimidation from Beijing, which views the self-governing democracy as its own territory and has said it will take control by force if necessary.

The events in Taiwan come in the context of a series of incidents in recent years in which undersea infrastructure around the world, including communications cables, has been damaged. Two high-profile incidents in the Baltic Sea involved Chinese ships and remain under investigation.

International significance of submarine cables

According to NATO chief Mark Rutte, more than 95% of global internet traffic travels via undersea cables. In total, there are approximately 1.3 million kilometers of such cables, securing an estimated $10 trillion in international trade every day.