Taiwan accuses Chinese ship captain of intentionally damaging submarine cables for the first time

Taiwan authorities have charged the captain of a Chinese vessel with intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island’s coast in February 2025. The decision comes amid a growing number of incidents involving damage to Taiwan’s underwater infrastructure. It is the first such charge, Reuters reports.

The Hong Tai 58, a Chinese-crewed vessel registered in Togo, Africa, was detained on suspicion that it deliberately dropped anchor near the cable off the island’s southwest coast at the same time the cable stopped functioning. The captain maintains his innocence, but Taiwanese authorities say he refused to provide details of the ship’s owner and “behaved badly” with local law enforcement. The remaining seven crew members will not be charged and will be sent home to China.

Earlier, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the People’s Republic of China called the incident a routine maritime incident. This year, Taiwan has already recorded five submarine cable failures, while in 2023-2024, there were only three. However, it was previously reported that many incidents were caused by natural wear and tear of infrastructure.

Image source: Tsukada Kazuhiro/unsplash.com

Tensions between China and Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, have increased in recent years. In 2023, a Chinese fishing vessel was blamed for damaging the Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 cable. The cable connected the main island of the Matsu archipelago with other, smaller islands. Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) announced at the time that the vessel was responsible for the cable break. In January this year, Taiwanese authorities announced that a China-linked vessel had entered the island’s territorial waters and damaged four fibers of the Chunghwa Telecom submarine cable. The vessel was registered in Cameroon.

Taiwan’s government, which rejects China’s sovereignty over the region, says attacks on undersea cables it says are orchestrated by China are aimed at putting pressure on the region without direct confrontation.

In November 2024, the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 was suspected of intentionally damaging the C-Lion1 and BCS East-West cables in the Baltic Sea. In late December of the same year, the Eagle S damaged several internet cables and one power cable in the Baltic. The reason for the incident was the low qualification of the crew. Nevertheless, NATO countries announced a new defense initiative in the Baltic Sea to protect underwater infrastructure. Sweden has already allocated three ships and an aircraft for this, and Germany has launched an underwater patrol drone into the sea.