Taiwanese officials claim the ship, which had a Chinese crew and was displaying a Togolese flag, was lingering in waters near the damaged underwater cable. This incident marks the fifth of its kind this year.
The Taiwanese coast guard apprehended a cargo ship with a Chinese crew on Tuesday and escorted it to Taiwan after discovering that an underwater telecommunications cable had been damaged.
"The cause of the underwater cable break is still unclear, whether it was due to deliberate tampering or an accident, and further investigation is needed to determine the reason," the coast guard said in a statement.
"All eight crew members are Chinese nationals, and we're not discounting the possibility of grey zone harassment," it added.
"Grey area" is how Taiwan refers to activities which it says China carries out to apply pressure without engaging in direct confrontation, such as sending weather balloons over its territory or sand dredging in its waters.
Taiwan: where was the damaged cable located?
Network operator Chunghwa Telecom stated that the crucial cable connected the Penghu Islands in the strategically significant Taiwan Strait to mainland Taiwan, which China considers as its own territory.
Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs stated that communication services remained unaffected following data rerouting to alternative cables.
Taiwan's coast guard stated that the Hongtai 58, a Chinese-crewed vessel registered in Togo, had dropped anchor off Taiwan's southwestern coast roughly around the time the cable was severed.
A senior security official informed Reuters that the vessel had remained in the waters since Saturday, "beyond the normal range," and failed to respond to repeated calls from the coast guard.
The official stated that the government is handling the case as a matter of national security.
Beijing has not made a statement on the incident, but this is not the first time that Chinese or Chinese-operated ships have been accused of causing damage to submarine cables.
Taiwan has already reported five cases of cable malfunctions this year, compared to just three each in 2023 and 2024, according to the digital ministry.
Disputes over the Baltic Sea have led to diplomatic tensions between European countries and Russia in recent months.
Edited by Zac Crellin
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