Taiwan detains Chinese-crewed cargo ship after undersea cable damaged

Taiwan detains Chinese-crewed cargo ship after undersea cable damaged

Taiwan’s coastguard has detained a cargo ship and its Chinese crew after an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait was damaged on Tuesday, saying it cannot rule out the possibility it was a deliberate “grey zone” act.

“Whether the cause of the undersea cable breakage was intentional sabotage or a simple accident remains to be clarified by further investigation,” the coastguard said in a statement. “It cannot be ruled out that it was a grey-zone intrusion by China.”

“Grey zone” refers to an act of hostile interference which does not reach the threshold of warfare.

The coastguard said it was alerted in the early hours of Tuesday by Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom company that a communications cable connecting Taiwan’s main island with Penghu, in the Taiwan Strait, had been damaged.

A cargo ship was identified as being nearby, and a boat from the Taiwan coastguard was sent to monitor it, off the coast of the city of Tainan. It was then intercepted and escorted back to Anping port shortly after midday. Footage provided by the coastguard shows several officers boarding the cargo ship.

The ship is registered under a Togolese flag, but Taiwan’s coastguard said that was probably a flag of convenience and all eight crew onboard were Chinese nationals. Ownership of the cargo ship is unclear – tracking and registration data shows at least three different ship names associated with the vessel’s maritime identification number. The coastguard said the vessel was “China-funded” but did not elaborate. It has been contacted for clarification.

Chunghwa said a back-up cable had come online and communication was not affected.

It is the latest undersea cable to be damaged around Taiwan in recent years. In January, the Taiwanese authorities investigated a Chinese-owned, Cameroon-registered vessel, Shunxing 39, which was suspected of dragging its anchor and damaging a cable north-east of the island that ran to the US.

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.

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.

Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu

Source: theguardian.com