The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon.
Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan.
The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday.
Photo copied by Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the issue, adding that it has forwarded all evidence and statements to prosecutors.
Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said yesterday that while the incident was pending investigation, China has a long history of sabotaging Taiwanese infrastructure using maritime tactics.
Ho said that the incident was a Chinese ploy to gauge the point at which the international community would draw a red line in an attempt to escalate its “gray zone” tactics.
Ho said such tactics were one reason Taiwan is working to launch its own low and medium Earth orbit satellites and increase telecom resilience.
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