San Francisco Frontiers - Taiwan says Chinese-owned ship suspected of damaging sea cable goes dark

The Cameroon-flagged vessel was supposed to sail to South Korea after it was briefly detained by Taiwan's coast guard on Friday on suspicion of dragging its anchor over an international subsea cable northeast of the island.

Taiwan has asked South Korean authorities for assistance in the investigation into the ship after rough seas prevented them boarding the vessel near northern Taiwan, the coast guard said.

A senior coast guard official told AFP that Shunxing39's automatic identification system signal, which is used to broadcast a vessel's location, was now turned off.

"It is illegal, but it has left our jurisdiction," the official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The captain of the Shunxing39 told the coast guard that the ship had been "dragging anchor", but Taiwanese authorities had no "clear evidence" to prove the vessel had damaged the cable, the official said.

"Without boarding, we cannot confirm it, we only have photos and videos," the official said.

Seven Chinese nationals were crewing the vessel, which the coast guard official confirmed was owned by Jie Yang Trading Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong.

The company's only listed director is Guo Wenjie, with an address in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the Hong Kong Companies Registry shows.

Jie Yang listed a Hong Kong secretary company, which provides corporate services, as its contact address and phone number.

That company told AFP on Tuesday it had no client matching the name of Jie Yang Trading Limited.

- Targets for attack -

The Cameroon-flagged vessel was intercepted by the coast guard on Friday after Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom reported damage to a subsea cable that is part of the Trans-Pacific Express Cable System.

The vessel, which the coast guard said also sailed under the Tanzanian flag, was expected to travel to South Korea's Busan port.

Chunghwa's telecoms service quickly returned to normal on Friday after the company re-routed communication traffic to other cables.

Chunghwa said Tuesday that it hoped to repair the damaged cable by the end of January.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.

In recent years, Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taipei, which fears China could attempt to sever communication links to the island.

Taipei-based military expert Su Tzu-yun said the latest incident was part of "Beijing's systematic action against Taiwan" and was designed to create unease among Taiwanese people.

"If Taiwan's undersea cables are completely cut off, its connections to the world are cut off," said Su of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

Su said subsea cables around Taiwan's outlying Matsu archipelago had been cut 27 times in recent years.

In February 2023, two undersea telecoms lines serving Matsu were severed, disrupting communications for weeks.

Taipei's Communications Commission and locals said at the time that Chinese fishing vessels or sand dredgers may have done the damage.

The world's data and communications are carried across oceans by great bundles of subsea fibre optic cables -- with their high strategic value making them potential targets for attack.

Taiwan has been exploring satellite-communication options to back-up subsea cables and a microwave system to ensure internet keeps running.

burs-amj/mtp

Z.Sanchez--SFF