Taiwanese authorities are investigating a Chinese-owned vessel that is suspected of damaging an undersea internet cable, causing limited disruption.
The Cameroon-registered vessel Shunxing 39 was briefly detained by Taiwan’s coastguard on Friday on suspicion of dragging its anchor over an international subsea cable north-east of the island. The cable runs to the US and is co-owned by several international companies.
Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom said services in Taiwan were mostly uninterrupted and that it had been able to quickly reroute data to other cables.
The Guardian understands the incident is being treated as a possible act of sabotage. Taiwan’s coastguard said on Tuesday it was collating evidence and referring the case to Taiwan’s district prosecutor’s office for investigation. It also said it had asked for assistance from the ship’s destination port of Busan, in South Korea.
After identifying the ship, Taiwan’s coastguard had ordered the vessel to return to Taiwanese waters for investigation but was unable to board due to rough weather. The Shunxing 39 then sailed to South Korea.
On Tuesday the coastguard told AFP the Shunxing 39 had since turned off its automatic identification systems (AIS), which transmit a ship’s name, class and location. Open-source marine trackers show it last transmitted its location on Friday morning, in the vicinity of the cable.
“Referencing incidents of undersea cables being damaged in the Baltic Sea in Europe last year, and judging from the historical tracks of the vessel, it is not possible to confirm the real intention of the vessel,” the coastguard said. “However, we cannot rule out the possibility of a Chinese flag-of-convenience ship engaging in grey-zone harassment.”
The freighter is registered under a Cameroon flag but reportedly owned by a Hong Kong company with links to mainland China, and according to Taiwan’s coastguard had a crew of seven Chinese nationals.
It had operated under at least two different flags and two sets of AIS, the coast guard said. Marine tracking data shows the vessel sailing short laps in the waters to the north of Taiwan since early December.
China’s government has not commented on the incident.
A Chinese bulk carrier was suspected of involvement in damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea in November, and a tanker linked to Russia was suspected of sabotaging a Finnish power cable and four telecom lines in December.
Undersea connectivity is a crucial global service but also extremely vulnerable. It has been repeatedly identified as a key vulnerability in Taiwan’s critical infrastructure defence against Chinese attacks.
China’s government has vowed to annex Taiwan, and for years has waged a campaign of military, legal and cognitive harassment designed to pressure the island’s government and people into submission.
Sunday’s incident is the latest among dozens of undersea cable cuttings around Taiwan in recent years.
In February 2023, damage to two cables near the outlying Matsu islands, close to the Chinese mainland, left residents without internet access for weeks. Two Chinese ships were blamed for cutting the cables in two incidents almost a week apart. However, the government stopped short of calling it a deliberate act on behalf of Beijing.
Taiwan government bodies this week convened emergency meetings to review protection and response measures on submarine cable damage.
“Ensuring connectivity is critical for informational operations and narrative control, which drives international support,” Raymond Kuo, director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative at the research organisation Rand, told the Guardian, citing a recent report by the Centre for Naval Analysis on the lessons Taiwan has taken from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Cutting those cables is a real concern in light of that, and it has prompted Taiwanese interest in independent control or assured reliability of satellite communications that can’t be as easily disrupted.”
