Once again, a Chinese ship is suspected of having damaged an undersea cable. The Taiwanese coast guard has detained the general cargo freighter.
The allegation is that the freighter cut the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable yesterday. The Coast Guard said it was notified by Chunghwa Telecom at around 3 a.m. local time on Feb. 25 that the submarine cable had been cut at a point six nautical miles northwest of Jiangjun Fishing Port. However, power could be transmitted with the help of reserve capacity.
Suspicion fell on a general cargo ship built in 2006 with a carrying capacity of 1,800 tons, which had been in the vicinity of the accident site for three days. The vessel bore the name “Hong Tai 168” on its hull, but various third-party vessel databases provide conflicting information about the name and ownership.
Equasis and VesselsValue give the name of the vessel as “Jin Long 389” under the Chinese flag, and the owner is Cosco Ship Leasing. However, the Lloyd’s List Intelligence seasearcher gives the name of the vessel as “Hongtai58” without naming an owner.
China, Taiwan, Russia, Baltic Sea …
Patrol boats circled the vessel from 7:10 p.m. on Feb. 22 until 3 a.m. on Feb. 25, when it remained anchored over the submarine cable. Continued radio warnings from the Coast Guard to the vessel to leave the area were ignored.
The vessel had been in the vicinity of the A Ping anchorage since February 3, after departing from Busan, South Korea. Heavy swells prevented the Coast Guard from boarding it, so it was intercepted as it began to move northwest. It was then escorted to A Ping.
Taiwanese authorities believe the latest incident could be part of China’s “gray zone tactics,” a type of warfare that involves unconventional military action. The Tainan district prosecutor’s office is now investigating the matter under national security protocols.
Not the first case of sabotage
It is not the first incident: on January 6, the Taiwan Coast Guard said it had asked its South Korean counterparts for help in locating the “Xing Shun 39”, a Chinese-owned general cargo ship suspected of damaging the Trans Pacific Express system linking Taiwan to the US West Coast on January 3. Subsequent media reports suggested that the said ship, which was said to have been heading towards Busan after the incident, used different names and identification numbers and is now untraceable.
Increasing geopolitical tensions between Russia, China and the rest of the world have raised suspicions whenever ships from these countries are involved in infrastructure damage.
In October 2023, the container ship “Newnew Polar Bear”, sailing on a route between China and Russia, damaged the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland after its anchor was dragged several nautical miles. However, the investigation by the Chinese authorities revealed that it was an accident in stormy weather.
On Christmas Day 2024, the 74,034-ton Cook Islands-flagged tanker “Eagle S”, said to be part of the shadow fleet transporting Russian crude oil, allegedly damaged the Estlink 2 submarine cable that transmits electricity from Finland to Estonia. The “Eagle S”, which is still being held by the Finnish authorities, is chartered as a bareboat vessel to the shipping arm of Russian oil trader Litasco, Eiger Shipping. (PL)
