The EU is closely following incidents involving undersea cables around Taiwan allegedly being damaged by vessels linked to China and condemns attacks targeting such infrastructure, an EU spokesperson said yesterday.
“We strongly condemn any deliberate destruction of critical infrastructure — be it in Asia, Europe or elsewhere,” the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity when replying to questions posed by the Central News Agency.
“We will continue to work together with like-minded partners around the globe to counter such activities,” the spokesperson said, adding that “the very interconnections that bring us together, like submarine data cables, have become targets — from the Baltic Sea to the Taiwan Strait.”
Photo: Screen grab from TeleGeography
A Togolese Republic-registered vessel and its Chinese crew were detained on Tuesday after a submarine communications cable linking Taiwan proper and Penghu County was severed.
The Coast Guard Administration said that it suspected the incident was an example of the “gray zone” techniques China adopts against Taiwan, while Chunghwa Telecom, which operates the cable, said the incident did not affect its customers.
The Tainan District Court on Thursday granted prosecutors’ motion to detain the Chinese captain of the vessel for further investigation.
Asked if the suspected sabotage of Taiwan’s undersea cable highlighted the need for a global partnership to enhance cable resilience, the EU spokesperson said: “We plan to work more closely together with our partners and actively engage in ‘cable diplomacy.’”
EU Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen on Friday last week presented in Helsinki a plan to strengthen the security and resilience of submarine cables, the spokesperson said.
What Virkkunen presented is “to collectively improve our capacity to prevent, detect, deter and respond to incidents affecting submarine critical infrastructure” through international and multinational institutions, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that “the EU has a direct interest in the preservation of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” and the EU calls on “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid any actions that may further escalate tensions, which should be resolved through cross-strait dialogue.”
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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