Officials yesterday vowed to enhance patrols in key offshore areas in response to the cutting of an undersea Internet cable last week by the Cameroon-registered, Hong Kong-owned freighter Shunxing-39 (順興39號), while Keelung prosecutors said they have opened an judicial investigation into the incident.
Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) yesterday said the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has gathered data about the incident, including the course taken by Shunxing-39, and given it to the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office.
“The CGA has recorded all of Taiwan’s undersea cables, their landing points onshore and the respective offshore areas, to compile onto marine maps. These are the priority sectors for marine patrol and surveillance by CGA vessels,” Lee said at a news conference following the Cabinet meeting.
Photo: Taipei Times
“In case of a future similar incident of ships undertaking suspicious activities and causing damage to undersea cables, we shall take the same measures — gathering evidence and marine tracking data, and prosecuting those found responsible,” she added
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) at a separate news conference said that it cannot rule out the severing of the Trans-Pacific Express cable as being part of China’s “gray zone” tactics.
“China has caused problems around the world, with Chinese ships registered abroad and flying other countries’ flags suspected of deliberately cutting undersea cables. Last year, they damaged cables in the Baltic Sea, prompting an investigation by Sweden, Finland and other nearby countries,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said.
“Taiwan also had to deal with numerous incidents of undersea cables being cut in waters around Kinmen and Lienchiang counties. Our government has to take a serious stance regarding these situations,” Liang said.
A formal request for assistance was also sent to South Korea, as heavy seas had prevented coast guard personnel from boarding the Shunxing-39 last week, which has since set course to Busan.
The MAC said it was a Chinese vessel owned by Jie Yang Trading Ltd, a Hong Kong company headed by Chinese citizen Guo Wenjie, has seven Chinese crewmembers, and is registered as Shunxing-39 in Cameroon and Xingshun-39 in Tanzania.
Guo denied the ship’s involvement in the cutting of the cables, but confirmed it had been in the area.
“There is no evidence at all,” he said. “I spoke to the ship captain and for us, it was a normal trip.”
Hong Kong’s records showed the company had been set up in 2020, with Guo as the sole director. Its listed address was a single room in a cosharing office space for a secretarial services company in an industrial building.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in a written statement on Wednesday said, globally, there were more than 100 incidents of damage to undersea cables annually, and that they are “common maritime accidents.”
With the facts still unclear, Taiwan is making accusations “out of thin air” and intentionally hyping up the “so-called ‘gray zone’ threat from the mainland,” it added.
The CGA said it was not yet able to gauge the ship’s “real intention.”
The vessel had lingered in waters off northern Taiwan since early last month until its signal was turned off on Friday last week, data showed.
Guo declined to specify why the ship had remained in the area or the purpose of the voyage, but said authorities had only sought details of its GPS movements.
“I don’t understand why there has been so much news about this. The ship had dropped anchor, so it had stopped in the nearby waters,” he said. “We followed the rules and normal procedures. If not, then Taiwan would have investigated and detained us.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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