The legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a motion asking the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Digital Affairs to increase capacity to maintain undersea cables after two connections between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County were broken, allegedly by Chinese vessels.
The motion, which was proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) and seconded by three other lawmakers, says that the two incidents on Feb. 2 and Feb. 8 severely disrupted communications for residents of the outlying islands.
Although Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) has since last month expanded the bandwidth of a microwave signaling system to maintain telephone and Internet services in the county, it is only enough to sustain basic services, the motion says.
Photo: CNA
Limited bandwidth in the microwave signaling system made it difficult for people to access mobile and broadband Internet services, and Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand services, it says.
“Although Chunghwa Telecom has been trying to book an international cable maintenance ship to repair the broken cables, the earliest ship cannot arrive until April 20,” the motion says.
“Taiwan has a strong manufacturing capability for information and communications equipment, and could become a key undersea cable hub with its geographical and technological advantages,” it says. “The resilience of communication networks must be bolstered through multiple transmission media, and the capability to maintain and swiftly repair key facilities.”
“The NCC and the ministry should study the possibility of expanding the capabilities of local operators to maintain undersea cables,” it says.
Separately, the NCC proposed an amendment to the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法) that would mandate penalties for damaging undersea cables.
It must consult with ministry officials over the wording of the amendment and the amount of the fines, it said.
Article 72 of the act stipulates that damaging “submarine cable landing stations, international switchboard centers and satellite communications centers” is penalizable by three to 10 years in prison, NCC Deputy Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) told a news conference in Taipei.
Those who damage such facilities due to negligence would be sentenced to no more than six months in prison or a fine of NT$200,000, Wong said.
However, the rules do not apply to undersea cables, he said.
NCC Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) pledged to toughen sanctions for those who damage undersea cables deliberately or negligently, by proposing an amendment to the act within one month.
The commission proposed to add an article 72-1 to the act stipulating penalties for breaking international and domestic submarine cables, Wong said, adding that the fines and other penalties would be increased.
Separately, the Financial Times reported that China is attempting to impede subsea Internet cable laying and maintenance in the South China Sea within its 12 nautical mile (22.2km) seabed territory by delaying permit approvals and lengthening administrative processes.
“China is attempting to exert more control over undersea activities in its region, in part to prevent US surveillance systems from being installed as part of undersea cable deployment,” Bryan Clark, a former US submarine officer and senior US Navy official, and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said in the report.
Chinese authorities have made the process to obtain permits long and onerous, three industry executives with knowledge of the situation said in the report.
Several industry sources said that China’s policing of its waters — including maritime areas marked on maps by the disputed “nine-dash line” — is a response to Beijing being excluded from international projects and fears that companies could use cables as a front for espionage, the Financial Times reported.
To avoid a deadlock over permits, cable consortiums were seeking new routes that circumvent Chinese waters, the sources said.
Avoiding the South China Sea meant greater expenses, as shallow waters near Borneo require extra layers of protection for the fiber cables, they said.
Additional reporting by Jake Chung
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS