An undersea Internet cable running between Taiwan's main island and the offshore Penghu Islands was severed earlier today, CNA reports. The affected telecom company was quick to reassure that "backup cables and microwave technologies" would mean no disruption — but the bigger story is the boarding and seizure of a Togo-registered ship and its eight Chinese crew suspected of sabotaging the cabling.
Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has monitored the Hong Tai freighter's movements in the area since Saturday, Feb. 22, according to a machine translation of the Chinese language news article. Subsequently, Taiwan Coast Guard vessel PP-10079 approached the freighter at 2:30 a.m. Feb. 25 and issued broadcasts requesting it leave.
The suspiciously stationed freighter seemed stuck for some reason but started moving at 3:08 a.m., according to the CGA. It stopped and restarted at 3:24 a.m., heading Northwest. Meanwhile, Taiwan's Chungwha Telecom contacted the coast guard about a damaged undersea cable suspected of being caused by 'external force.'
The above seems to show quick communications between the separate agencies. Thus, the coast guard vessel quickly closed in on the Hong Tai and was taken back to Anping Port on the main island of Taiwan by 12.15 p.m.
Moving on to details about the ship and crew, local media says that the seized vessel was registered in Togo, but all eight crew detained were Chinese citizens. The coast guard wasn't definitive about the cable damage being inflicted on purpose. It says that further investigations will be conducted into the matter.
Representatives of Taiwan's current government don't seem to want to sit on the fence, though. CNA quotes Presidential Office Spokesperson Lii Wen (李問) as saying, "Taiwan must continue to strengthen the protection of submarine cables and the resilience of communications."
Lii pointed the finger at the Chinese Communist Party and described the protection of these kinds of cables as "a national security issue."
Chinese naval saber-rattling around the Taiwanese island isn't new, but if Lii is correct, it seems to have added actual physical infrastructure damage to its menacing behavior. The communists may have been inspired and emboldened by Russia's similar skulduggery and 'plausible deniability' related to cable-cutting incidents in the Baltic and other seas around Europe.
