Chinese ship damages submarine telecommunications cable off Taiwan
The Chinese cargo ship Shunxin 39, flying the flag of Cameroon, damaged a Chunghwa Telecom telecommunications cable near the port of Keelung in Taiwan.
Here's What We Know
The incident occurred on 3 January 2025 at around 7:00 am. The cable's monitoring system detected the problem at 7:51 am. According to Chunghwa Telecom, four cable cores were damaged.
The same day, at 16:40, Coast Guard patrol boat PP-10069 spotted the vessel 13km north of Yiliu. The crew was ordered to return to the port of Keelung, but bad weather conditions prevented them from doing so. The vessel continued to sail into international waters towards South Korea.
Despite the damage, data transmission was quickly switched to backup power, which avoided serious disruptions. The Maritime Administration stated that if the vessel re-appears in the port, it will be thoroughly checked and the information will be passed on to the relevant services.
As a reminder, there have been similar incidents involving Chinese vessels before: they were allegedly involved in damaging several submarine cables in the Baltic Sea. According to The Wall Street Journal, their actions were coordinated by Russian intelligence. The telecommunication cable was damaged on 18 November 2024 after the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 passed over it.
Finland, Germany, Sweden and Lithuania reported the damage to the cable. Launched in 2016, the cable is the only submarine communication cable running directly to Central Europe.
Source: LTN
