Taiwan is investigating whether a China-linked ship is responsible for damaging one of the undersea cables that connect Taiwan to the internet, the latest reminder of how vulnerable Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is to damage from China.
Incident comes as concern grows in Europe apparent acts of sabotageincluding those intended for these submarine communications cables. Two fiber optic cables under the Baltic Sea have been separated in Novemberprompting Swedish, Finnish and Lithuanian authorities to detain a Chinese-flagged commercial vessel in the region for weeks over its possible involvement.
In Taiwan, communications were quickly diverted after the damage was detected, and there were no major outages. The island’s main telecommunications provider, Chunghwa Telecom, received notification Friday morning that the cable, known as Trans-Pacific Express Cable, had been damaged. This cable also connects South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.
That afternoon, Taiwan’s coast guard intercepted a cargo ship off the northern city of Keelung, in an area near where half a dozen cables make landfall. The vessel was owned by a Hong Kong company and crewed by seven Chinese nationals, the Taiwan Coast Guard Administration said.
The damaged cable is one of a dozen others helping to keep Taiwan online. These fragile cables are susceptible to being broken by anchors dragged across the seabed by the many ships in the busy waters around Taiwan.
Analysts and officials say that while it is difficult to prove whether the damage to these cables was intentional, such an act would be part of a pattern of intimidation and psychological warfare by China aimed at weakening China’s defenses. Taiwan.
Taiwan said the cargo ship it intercepted was registered under the flags of Cameroon and Tanzania. “The possibility of a Chinese-flagged vessel engaging in harassment in the gray zone cannot be ruled out,” the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement on Monday.
Such harassment, which hampers Taiwanese forces but does not lead to open confrontation, has a desensitizing effect over time, according to Yisuo Tzeng, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think tank. funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense. This puts Taiwan at risk of being caught off guard in the event of a real conflict, Tzeng said.
Taiwan faces almost daily incursions into its waters and airspace from the People’s Liberation Army. Last month, China sent nearly 90 navy and coast guard vessels to the region’s waters. the largest operation of its type in almost three decades.
China has also deployed militarized fishing boats and his coast guard fleet in conflicts around the South China Sea region and has intensified its patrols just a few kilometers from the shores of Taiwan’s outlying islands, increasing the risk of dangerous clashes.
Such harassment has been “a defining marker of Chinese coercion against Taiwan for decades, but over the past two years it has really intensified,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And in situations like this and the recent damage to cables under the Baltic Sea, it is difficult for authorities to calibrate their response when the true identity of a ship is uncertain.
“Do you deploy a Coast Guard vessel every time there is an illegal sand dredger or, in this case, a flag of convenience vessel with Chinese ties that damages an undersea cable?” » asked Mr. Poling.
Ship tracking data and ship records analyzed by The Times show the ship may have broadcast its locations under a false name.
Taiwan said the ship appeared to use two sets of automatic identification system equipment, used to broadcast a ship’s position. On January 3, at the same time that Taiwan declared the cable damaged, a vessel named Shun Xing 39 was reporting its AIS positions in the waters off Taiwan’s northeast coast.
About nine hours later, around 4:51 p.m. local time, Shun Xing 39 stopped transmitting location data. It was shortly after that the Taiwan Coast Guard said it had located the vessel and requested that it return to the waters outside Keelung Port for an investigation.
A minute later, and 50 feet away, a ship called Xing Shun 39, which had not reported a position since late December, began broadcasting a signal, according to William Conroy, a maritime analyst. with Semaphore Maritime Solutions, which analyzed AIS data on the Starboard vessel tracking platform.
In the ship tracking database, the Xing Shun 39 and Shun to require registration with the International Maritime Organization and obtain a unique identification number called an IMO number. Xing Shun 39 has an IMO number, but Shun Xing 39 does not appear in the OMI database. This suggests that “Xing Shun 39” is the true identity of the ship and that “Shun Xing 39” is a fake, according to Conroy.
The Taiwan Coast Guard publicly identified the vessel as the Shun Xing 39.
Ship and company records show that Jie Yang Trading Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company, took over as owner of the Xing Shun 39 in April 2024.
The waves were too big to board the cargo ship for further investigation, the Taiwan Coast Guard Administration said. Taiwan is seeking help from South Korea because the cargo ship’s crew said it was heading toward that country, the administration said.
In 2023, the Matsu outlying islands, within sight of the Chinese coast, endured a spotty internet connection for months after two underwater internet cables broke. These fiber optic cables which connect Taiwan to the Internet suffered around thirty ruptures of this type between 2017 and 2023.
The frequent outages are a reminder that Taiwan’s communications infrastructure must be able to withstand a crisis.
To ensure Taiwan could stay online in the event of cable failures, the government implemented a backup solution, including building a network of low-Earth orbit satellites capable of transmitting internet to Earth from space. Above all, the Taiwanese authorities are rushing to build their system. without the involvement of Elon Muskwhose rocket company SpaceX dominates the satellite internet industry, but whose deep business ties to China have made them wary.
