**Taiwan Seeks Investigation Cooperation from South Korea Regarding Chinese Cargo Ship’s Suspected Cable Cut**
Amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese government has requested South Korea’s cooperation in investigating a Chinese cargo ship, suspected of cutting an undersea communication cable off Taiwan’s coast. This incident could potentially escalate into a cross-strait conflict.
According to the Financial Times, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom and the coast guard suspect that the cargo ship “Shunxing39” damaged an undersea cable on January 3rd near Keelung Harbor. Taiwanese authorities stated they couldn’t interrogate the ship’s captain, so they asked South Korean authorities to assist in investigating the ship at its next port of call.
The “Shunxing39,” sailing under the flag of Cameroon, is reportedly owned by a Hong Kong company, with a board member from mainland China. Analysis of AIS information and satellite images suggests the ship intentionally dropped anchor to sever a cable linking Taiwan and the western U.S. This damaged cable is part of the Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) consortium, involving companies like AT&T, NTT, KT, China Telecom, and China Unicom.
There are suspicions in Taiwan that China might be testing ways to isolate Taiwanese communications from the outside world. Taiwan relies on 14 undersea cables for 95% of its international data and voice traffic. A senior Taiwanese security official described the ship as similar to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” with minimal other business and in poor condition.
Taiwan could not directly inspect the suspect vessel due to bad weather and procedural delays, noting that significant time had passed since the incident, making it difficult to seize and investigate under international law. Location tracking confirmed that “Shunxing39” had been near Taiwan’s northern coast since December 8th, before the cable-cutting incident was reported.