Taiwan suspects a ship linked to China of damaging an internet cable

Taiwan is investigating whether a ship linked to China was responsible for damaging one of the submarine cables connecting Taiwan to the Internet, the latest reminder of how vulnerable Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is to damage from China.

The incident comes as concern grows in Europe Clear acts of sabotageincluding those targeting undersea communications cables. Two fiber optic cables have been installed under the Baltic Sea It was cut off in NovemberThis prompted officials from Sweden, Finland and Lithuania to stop a Chinese-flagged commercial ship in the region for weeks due to possible involvement.

In Taiwan, communications were quickly rerouted after the damage was discovered, and there was no major disruption. Chunghwa Telecom, the island’s main telecommunications company, received notification on Friday morning that the cable, known as the Trans-Pacific Express Cable, had been damaged. This cable also connects to South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.

That afternoon, the Taiwan Coast Guard intercepted a cargo ship off the northern city of Keelung, in an area close to where six cables made landfall. The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration said that the ship is owned by a company in Hong Kong and its crew consists of seven Chinese citizens.

The damaged cable is one of more than a dozen that help keep Taiwan connected to the Internet. These fragile cables are vulnerable to breakage due to anchors being dragged along the sea floor by many ships in the crowded waters around Taiwan.

Analysts and officials say that although it is difficult to prove whether the damage to these cables was intentional, such an act fits into a pattern of intimidation and psychological warfare waged by China aimed at weakening Taiwan’s defenses.

Taiwan said the cargo ship it intercepted was registered under the flags of Cameroon and Tanzania. “The possibility that a vessel flying a Chinese flag of convenience may be involved in harassment in the gray zone cannot be ruled out,” the Coast Guard Department said Monday in a statement.

Such harassment, which upsets Taiwanese forces but stops short of overt confrontation, has a desensitizing effect over time, according to Yisu Tseng, a researcher at the National Defense and Security Research Institute, a think tank funded by Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. This puts Taiwan at risk of being caught off guard in the event of a real conflict, Zeng said.

Taiwan witnesses almost daily incursions into its waters and airspace by the People’s Liberation Army. Last month, China sent nearly 90 navy and coast guard vessels to waters in the region The largest operation of its kind in nearly three decades.

China also published Military fishing boats And for her Coast Guard Fleet In disputes over the South China Sea region, patrols have been intensified a few miles offshore of Taiwan’s outer islands, increasing the danger Serious confrontations.

Such harassment has been “a defining sign of Chinese coercion against Taiwan for decades, but over the past two years it has actually escalated,” said Gregory Bowling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In situations like this and the recent damage to cables under the Baltic Sea, it is difficult for the authorities to calibrate their response when the true identity of the 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 registered vessel with Chinese ties that damages an undersea cable?” asked Mr. Bowling.

Ship tracking data and ship logs analyzed by The Times show the ship may have been broadcasting its positions under a fake name.

Taiwan said the ship appeared to be using two sets of automatic identification system equipment, which is used to broadcast the ship’s location. On January 3, at the moment Taiwan said the cable had been damaged, a ship called the Shun Xing 39 was reporting its AIS positions in the waters off Taiwan’s northeastern coast.

About nine hours later, at approximately 4:51 PM local time, Shun Xing 39 stopped sending location data. That was shortly after the time the Taiwan Coast Guard said it located the ship and asked it to return to the waters outside Keelung Port for an investigation.

A minute later, 50 feet away, a ship called the Shing Shun 39, which had not reported its position since late December, began broadcasting a signal, according to William Conroy, a marine analyst in Wildwood, Missouri, with Semaphore Maritime Solutions. who analyzed AIS data on the Starboard ship tracking platform.

In the ship tracking database, both Xing Shun 39 and Shun A unique identification number known as an IMO number. Xing Shun 39 has an IMO number, but Shun Xing 39 does not appear in the IMO database. This indicates that the “Xing Shun 39” is the ship’s true identity and that the “Shun Xing 39” is a fake, according to Mr. Conroy.

The Taiwan Coast Guard publicly identified the vessel as the Shun Xing 39, and said the vessel used two AIS systems.

Jie Yang Trading Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company, took over as owner of Xing Shun 39 in April 2024, ship and corporate records show.

The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration said the waves were too large to board the cargo ship for further investigation. The administration said Taiwan was requesting help from South Korea because the cargo ship’s crew said it was headed to that country.

In 2023, the remote Matsu Islands, within sight of the Chinese coast, Internet suffered patchy For several months after two undersea Internet cables were cut off. Fiber optic cables connecting Taiwan to the Internet suffered about 30 outages between 2017 and 2023.

The frequent outages are a reminder that Taiwan’s communications infrastructure must be able to withstand crises.

To help ensure Taiwan stays connected to the Internet in the event of a cable failure, the government is seeking a backup, including building a network of low-Earth orbit satellites capable of beaming Internet to Earth from space. Crucially, Taiwan officials are racing to build their own system Without the participation of Elon Muskwhose rocket company SpaceX dominates the satellite internet industry, but whose deep business ties to China have made it wary.