Some have been cast as acts of sabotage, pinning blame on Russia and China<\/a> amid heightened geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n Early this month, Taiwan\u2019s coast guard said<\/a> it had intercepted the Xing Shun 39 \u2014 a Hong Kong-owned freighter carrying the Cameroonian and Tanzanian flags \u2014 after Taiwan\u2019s biggest telecom company, Chunghwa Telecom, alerted authorities that an international undersea cable had been damaged on Jan. 3.<\/p>\n A \u201cpreliminary assessment\u201d suggested the damage might have been caused by the freighter, which \u201ctransited the area at the time of the incident,\u201d the coast guard said.<\/p>\n With an average of about 200 cable faults a year, according to the International Cable Protection Committee, damage to undersea communications infrastructure is not uncommon. The majority are caused by ship anchors or fishing activity such as trawling, where heavy equipment is dragged across the seafloor.<\/p>\n But the Taiwanese government says this may have been an example of Chinese \u201cgray-zone interference,\u201d irregular military and nonmilitary tactics that aim to wear down an opponent without engaging in an actual shooting war.<\/p>\n It also comes amid an uproar in Europe, where NATO is stepping up patrols of Baltic Sea cables that provide power and enable almost all intercontinental communication, including the internet.<\/p>\n In Helsinki on Tuesday, members of the defense bloc with access to the Baltic Sea agreed at a summit on regional security threats \u2014 including Russian cable sabotage \u2014 to deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n NATO members said they reserved the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat as part of a broader action, dubbed \u201cBaltic Sentry,\u201d in response to\u00a0a string of incidents<\/a>\u00a0in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n The damage from the Jan. 3 incident did not disrupt communications in Taiwan, as the data was routed to other cables.<\/p>\n However, \u201cif enough cables were cut you can potentially cause something as severe as an internet blackout,\u201d said Ian Li Huiyuan, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. \u201cEspecially for Taiwan\u2019s case, since it\u2019s an island and there\u2019s no overland alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office said last week that undersea cables were damaged by \u201ccommon maritime accidents\u201d and that Taiwan, which is self-governed but which Beijing claims as its territory, was making accusations \u201cout of thin air\u201d and intentionally hyping up the \u201cso-called gray zone threat,\u201d according to Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Taiwan\u2019s Mainland Affairs Council, which makes China policy, responded that the investigation would proceed based on the evidence.<\/p>\n It said Chinese \u201cflag-of-convenience\u201d ships \u201chave a bad reputation in the international community,\u201d pointing to similar cases in Baltic states in which Chinese vessels were suspected.<\/p>\n The race to protect cables<\/strong><\/p>\n It can be difficult to determine whether a cable was damaged by accident or deliberately, but heightened geopolitical tensions have raised suspicions of sabotage.<\/p>\n Estonia said last month that it would deploy naval assets to protect cables connecting it with Finland after its Estlink 2 cable was damaged on Christmas Day. Finland is investigating a Russian oil tanker<\/a> that was seized after the incident and may have been dragging its anchor along the seabed.<\/p>\n \u201cThree cases in one year cannot be a coincidence,\u201d Finnish President Alexander Stubb said last month.<\/p>\n NATO is also deploying at least two ships to the Baltic Sea area for surveillance.<\/p>\n While the alliance\u2019s heightened alert mostly involves Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of smuggling ships, Chinese-owned vessels have come under suspicion as well, including in November when one freighter was detained for weeks<\/a> in Danish waters after two fiber-optic cables were damaged<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/puerto-1024x679.jpg\")
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