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Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Taiwan Catches Chinese-Crewed Ship Allegedly Damaging Undersea Cable
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. Taiwan has detained a Chinese-crewed ship over suspicions it deliberately damaged an undersea cable to the island. On Tuesday, Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration reported intercepting the 'Hongtai 168' while investigating a disruption involving an undersea fiber cable for a local mobile carrier, Chunghwa Telecom. The report suggests Taiwan authorities caught the Hongtai in the act of damaging the undersea cable. Taiwan's coast guard noted it had already deployed a patrol boat to monitor the ship at 2:30 a.m. local time. The boat then detected Hongtai dropping its anchor. At 3:03 a.m., Chunghwa Telecom began noticing problems with the undersea cable. 'Upon detecting that the vessel had dropped anchor and remained stationary, authorities immediately issued a broadcast order for it to leave and maintained full surveillance,' Taiwan's coast guard added. After receiving the outage report from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwanese authorities then seized the ship and escorted it to Anping Port in Tainan City. 'The case is being handled at a national security level,' the coast guard added. Taiwan has become increasingly concerned about suspected efforts from China to disrupt internet communications to the island. Last month, a separate Chinese vessel was suspected of damaging another cable to Taiwan. These so-called 'gray zone' operations occur when China has long sought to retake Taiwan and undermine the island's democratically elected government. In this case, the Hongtai 168 flew the flag from the African country Togo. However, Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration says the ship was crewed by eight Chinese nationals. 'The Coast Guard emphasized that the cause of the submarine cable break—whether it was intentional sabotage or a simple accident—remains under investigation,' it said. 'Authorities are not ruling out the possibility that this incident is part of China's gray-zone interference operations.' Meanwhile, Chunghwa Telecom reports it's been re-routing communication through a backup cable. "The voice, mobile, Internet, and various communication services of Taiwan and Penghu users were not affected," it said.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Taiwan coast guard suspects Chinese ship crew severed communication cable
Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The Taiwanese coast guard has detained a Chinese cargo ship and its crew as it investigates the destruction of an undersea communication cable. The cable that connects mainland Taiwan to its Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait was severed six nautical miles northwest of the Jiangjun Fishing Port on Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard Administration. Communication is not affected and a backup cable has been activated. The eight crew members detained are all Chinese nationals. "Whether the cause of the undersea cable breakage was intentional sabotage or a simple accident remains to be clarified by further investigation," Taiwan's coast guard said in a statement. "It cannot be ruled out that it was a grey-zone intrusion by China." The ship, identified as Hongtai 168, was found anchored and stranded early Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard Administration responded to a request to assist the investigation and monitored the ship before ultimately escorting it to the Port of Anping, located in the Taiwanese city Tainan. The damage of the Taiwan-Penghu Third Undersea Cable Line is not the first instance of Taiwan's undersea communication cables being damaged in a suspicious manner. Taiwanese officials suspect a Chinese cargo ship may have cut a cable north of its coast in January. Two cables connecting mainland Taiwan to its islands of Matsu were damaged in 2023 causing an internet blackout. Taiwan alleges that Chinese ships were responsible, though it does not hold the position that this was intentional. China has continued to ramp up its claim that Taiwan is Chinese territory, sending warships and military aircraft to the area surrounding Taiwan over the past year. In December, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his stance that Taiwan is part of China. "We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family," Xi said in a New Year address. "No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us."
