A Chinese-owned vessel cut an undersea fiber-optic cable near Taiwan, according to Taiwanese authorities, causing only minimal disruption of service but sending a message about the vulnerability of the island and its internet.
The incident was the latest in a string of episodes of apparent sabotage—including the cutting of data cables beneath the Baltic Sea—that have called attention to the security of what is viewed as critical infrastructure for many countries.
China is engaged in a long-running, multifaceted pressure campaign to influence the people and leadership of Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy on an island claimed by Beijing as its own territory.
At the same time, Taiwan is working to ensure that it has adequately secured internet service to keep the island online in the event of an invasion or blockade by China.
On Friday, the Hong Kong-owned, Cameroon-flagged cargo vessel was found cutting one of about a dozen undersea communications cables connecting Taiwan to other countries in the region, according to Taiwanese authorities. Seven crew members on board were Chinese nationals, authorities said.
At around 7:51 a.m. on Friday, a disruption warning about a subsea cable near Taiwan’s Keelung Harbor was sent to Chunghwa Telecom, the Taiwanese government-run telecommunications operator. Internet service was largely unaffected, the company said.
Chunghwa said it suspected the outage was caused by a vessel dragging the cable, which lies on the seabed. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Around midday, the Taiwanese Coast Guard dispatched a unit to track down the suspected vessel and found it after nine hours. The maritime law-enforcement agency said the officers couldn’t board the vessel for inspection because of weather conditions but that it had collected radar data and navigation records that it would send to prosecutors for further investigation.
The vessel, identified by the Taiwanese Coast Guard as the Shunxing 39, continued its journey to the South Korean port city of Busan, the maritime agency said, adding that it has notified Seoul about the case.
The Taiwanese Coast Guard said the ship was also registered in Tanzania and appeared to operate under two sets of Automatic Identification System equipment, a transmission tracking device that provides a ship’s type, name and coordinates in real time.
