Taiwan attempted to intercept a Chinese-owned ship believed to be responsible for damaging an undersea cable off its northeast coast.
Chunghwa Telecom reported the break in the cable on Friday and the national coast guard said early research suggested it was caused by a Cameroon-registered cargo ship.
The coast guard named the vessel as Shunxin39. Media reports identify it as the 1,987-gt Xing Shun 39 (built 2006), with registered ownership in Hong Kong.
The FT reported that the only listed director of the company, Jie Yang Trading, was from mainland China. The company could not be reached for comment.
The coast guard ordered the ship back to Taiwan but it did not stop. Its next stop was due to be South Korea, where authorities have reportedly been asked to help.
Communications to the island were not affected by the break in waters off Yehliu, as back-up systems were in place.
The coast guard said Chunghwa records and radar and navigation evidence would be transferred to local prosecutors to investigate further.
The incident highlighted the vulnerabilities of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.
China has increased military exercises around the island, risking an escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait that could affect maritime traffic.
Taiwan is looking to launch low-earth satellites to provide communications back-up in case of sabotage of the cables.
Yisuo Tzeng of Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense & Security Research told Taiwan Plus News: “This way of operating is part of grey zone tactics. They make it hard to determine what country is really responsible.
“China can deploy small technical vessels to cut off underseas cables or break them by dragging anchors.”
Finnish police are investigating a suspected anchor dragging that damaged an electricity cable linking Estonia and Finland last month.
The 74,035-dwt Eagle S (built 2006) has been detained by the Finnish authorities and travel bans have been imposed on eight of the crew.
Read more
- Finnish coastguard responds to stricken Russia-bound tanker as dark fleet vessels linger
- Dark fleet tanker accused of Baltic sabotage taken to Finnish port
- Nato to ramp up infrastructure defence after third suspected Baltic Sea sabotage
- ‘Enormous threat’: Shadow fleet tanker suspected in new cable sabotage drama
