“Taiwan asks South Korea for help in investigation of submarine cable damage A Chinese vessel flying the Cameroon flag is suspected of damaging an underwater communications cable off the coast of Taiwan. Taipei has asked South Korea for help in investigating the incident as the ship heads to the port of Busan.”, — write on: unn.ua
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Taiwanese telecommunications operator Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwan Coast Guard said on Saturday that the cargo ship Shunxing39 may have damaged a communication cable near the port of Keelung on Taiwan’s northern coast on the morning of January 3.
This follows incidents of damage to fiber optic cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in October and November 2023, which raised concerns about the security of strategic maritime infrastructure facilities. These events once again demonstrated the difficulty in identifying those responsible for sabotage and the need to strengthen international cooperation to protect underwater communication networks.
The latest case of cable damage has drawn attention to potential threats to Taiwan. Although the cable vessel was operating under the flag of Cameroon, Taiwanese officials say it is owned by Hong Kong-based Jie Yang Trading Limited, which is headed by mainland Chinese national Guo Wenjie.
Chunghwa Telecom said data transmission was immediately restored by rerouting data to other international submarine cables. But Taipei is concerned that China could covertly cut off Taiwan’s external communications channels in any potential attempt to annex the country. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and has threatened to seize it by force if necessary. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, representatives of Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwanese government told the Financial Times that the damaged cable was part of the Trans-Pacific Express cable system. The submarine Internet cable connecting Taiwan to the West Coast of the United States is owned by an international consortium. In addition to Chunghwa, it includes US operator AT&T, Japan’s NTT, Korea Telecom and Chinese operators China Telecom and China Unicom.
Since we have not been able to question the captain, we have asked the South Korean authorities to assist with the investigation at the vessel’s next port of destination,
A Taiwanese national security official said the ship was expected to arrive in Busan within the next few days. Taiwan’s coast guard and other government officials said tracking data from the vessel’s automatic identification system and satellite data showed that the Shunxing39 had pulled an anchor where the cable was broken.
According to officials, the Coast Guard vessel was conducting an external survey of the vessel and was in radio contact with the captain, whose officials were unable to board because of bad weather, and he could not order his arrest for further investigation under international law.
This is yet another case of a very disturbing global trend of sabotage against submarine cables,” said a senior national security official in Taiwan. The ships involved in these incidents are generally old vessels of no particular character. This one is also in very poor condition . This is similar to the ships that are part of the Russian “shadow fleet”
According to MarineTraffic, a vessel tracking and maritime analytics company, the Shunxing39 has been crossing waters off the northern coast of Taiwan since December 1.
We will remind
The Cameroon-flagged cargo ship Shunxing 39, owned by a Chinese company, damaged a communication cable near the port of Keelung. Taiwan asked South Korea for help in investigating the incident.