Chinese Freighter Suspected of Severing Telecom Cable off Taiwan
Taiwan's coast guard believes that a Chinese freighter severed a telecom cable off the island's northern coastline last week, and analysts have flagged the possibility of a gray-zone attack - the same subsea security concern that Baltic nations have wrestled with over the past year.
On Friday at about 1240 hours, Chungwha Telecom notified Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) that a subsea communications cable had been severed just off the coast of Keelung. The CGA sent a patrol boat to intercept the Hong Kong-owned freighter Shunxin-39 (registered as Xing Shun 39, IMO 8358427), which was just off the coast of Yehliu.
The CGA ordered the freighter to reverse course and head back to Keelung for an investigation; however, its current location is unclear and its AIS signal has not been received by commercial services since Friday. The CGA has passed all collected information to a prosecutor for a criminal inquiry.
Subsea cables are accidentally cut dozens of times a year in locations around the world, typically because of anchor-dragging and trawling in cable crossing areas. Similar damage can be inflicted by dragging anchor along the bottom under power. This puts tremendous strain on the anchor - even twisting or breaking it - but if the ship continues its transit, it can sever multiple subsea cables or pipelines in a single pass, evidence from multiple ongoing investigations suggests.
Over the past 15 months, three different merchant ships allegedly dragged anchor for long distances along the bottom of the Baltic, severing more than half a dozen cables and one gas pipeline between NATO countries. All three called in Russia before or after a questionable transit; two had ownership links to China; and one was a previously-identified member of Russia's "dark fleet" of shadowy tankers. At least one of these incidents is suspected of a connection to Russian intelligence, an EU security source told the Wall Street Journal. Based on these concerns, NATO has agreed to ramp up patrols in the Baltic.
Marco Ho Cheng-hui, CEO of the Taiwanese self-defense advocacy group Kuma Academy, told Taipei Times that China has a long history of using ships to damage Taiwanese subsea infrastructure. He suggested that last week's incident involving the Shunxin-39 was a probe, intended to determine how much covert subsea sabotage China can carry out without attracting international pushback.
Xing Shun 39 is a 3,000 dwt coastal freighter owned in Hong Kong and flagged in Tanzania. The vessel was Chinese-flagged from the time of its entry into service in 2006 up until early 2024, when it changed owners and registries.
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