Taiwan is investigating whether a China-linked vessel was responsible for damaging one of the undersea 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 anxiety grows in Europe over alleged acts of sabotage, including those targeting undersea communications cables. Two fiber optic cables under the Baltic Sea were severed in November, prompting authorities in Sweden, Finland and Lithuania to stop a Chinese-flagged commercial vessel in the area for weeks over its possible involvement.
In Taiwan, communications were quickly diverted after the damage was detected and no major disruptions occurred. The island’s main telecommunications provider, Chunghwa Telecom, received notification Friday morning that the cable, known as the Trans-Pacific Express Cable, had been damaged. That cable also connects to South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.
That afternoon, Taiwan’s Coast Guard intercepted a cargo ship off the northern city of Keelung, in an area near where a half-dozen cables touch land. The vessel was owned by a Hong Kong company and the crew consisted of seven Chinese nationals, Taiwan’s coast guard administration said.
The damaged cable is one of more than a dozen that help keep Taiwan online. These fragile cables are susceptible to breaking due to anchors being dragged along the seabed by the many ships in the busy waters around Taiwan.
Analysts and officials say that while it is difficult to prove whether the damage to these cables was intentional, such an act would be part of a pattern of intimidation and psychological warfare by China aimed at weakening Taiwan’s defenses.
Taiwan said the intercepted cargo ship was registered under the flags of both Cameroon and Tanzania. “The possibility that a Chinese-flagged vessel is engaged in harassment in the gray zone cannot be ruled out,” the Coast Guard administration said in a statement Monday.
Such harassment, which disturbs Taiwanese forces but stops short of an open confrontation, has a desensitizing effect over time, according to Yisuo Tzeng, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think tank funded by the Defense Ministry of Taiwan. This exposes Taiwan to the risk of being caught by surprise in the event of a real conflict, Tzeng said.
Taiwan suffers almost daily incursions into its waters and airspace by the People’s Liberation Army. Last month, China sent nearly 90 navy and coast guard ships to the area’s waters, the largest such operation in nearly three decades.
China has also deployed militarized fishing vessels and its coast guard fleet in disputes around the South China Sea region, and stepped up patrols just miles off the coast of Taiwan’s outer islands, raising the risk of dangerous clashes.
Such harassment has been a “hallmark indicator of Chinese coercion against Taiwan for decades, but in the last couple of years it has really intensified,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And in situations like this and the recent damage to cables under the Baltic Sea, it is difficult for authorities to calibrate their response when a vessel’s true identity is uncertain.
“Does a Coast Guard vessel deploy every time there is an illegal sand dredge or, in this case, a flag-of-convenience-registered vessel with Chinese ties damages an undersea cable?” asked Mr. Poling.
Tracking data and ship logs analyzed by the Times show that the vessel may have broadcast its positions under a false name.
Taiwan said the vessel appears to use two sets of Automatic Identification System equipment, which is used to transmit the vessel’s location. On January 3, at the time Taiwan said the cable was damaged, a vessel named Shun Xing 39 was reporting its AIS positions in waters off Taiwan’s northeastern coast.
About nine hours later, around 4:51 pm local time, Shun Xing 39 stopped transmitting location data. This came shortly after the Taiwan Coast Guard said it had located the vessel and requested that it return to waters outside Keelung Harbor for an investigation.
A minute later, and 50 feet away, a vessel called Xing Shun 39, which had not reported a position since late December, began transmitting a signal, according to William Conroy, a maritime analyst. with Semaphore Maritime Solutions, which analyzed AIS data on the Starboard ship tracking platform.
In the ship tracking database, both Xing Shun 39 and Shun International Maritime Organization and obtain 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 suggests that “Xing Shun 39” is the true identity of the ship and that “Shun Xing 39” is fake, according to Mr. Conroy.
The Taiwan Coast Guard publicly identified the vessel as Shun Xing 39.
Ship and company records show that Jie Yang Trading Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company, became the owner of the Xing Shun 39 in April 2024.
The waves were too large to board the cargo vessel and investigate further, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said. Taiwan is seeking help from South Korea because the cargo ship’s crew said it was headed to that country, the administration said.
In 2023, the peripheral Matsu Islands, within sight of the Chinese coast, endured patchy internet connections for months after two underwater internet cables broke. These fiber optic cables connecting Taiwan to the Internet suffered around 30 such breaks between 2017 and 2023.
The frequent breakdowns are a reminder that Taiwan’s communications infrastructure must be able to withstand a crisis.
To ensure Taiwan can stay online in the event of a cable failure, the government has pursued backup measures, including building a network of low-Earth orbit satellites capable of beaming Internet to Earth from space. Crucially, Taiwanese officials are racing to build their system without the involvement of Elon Musk, whose rocket company, SpaceX, dominates the satellite Internet industry but whose deep business ties to China have made them wary.