TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Chinese ship that the Taiwan Coast Guard believes cut an undersea cable denied responsibility on Wednesday.
On Friday, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom reported the Chinese-owned vessel “Shunxing39” damaged an undersea communications cable off the country’s north coast. The Chinese cargo ship owner told Reuters there was no evidence the vessel was involved.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said the ship’s broadcast system and satellite data revealed that the ship had dragged its anchor at the place of the cable damage. One Taiwanese security official called the incident “another case of a very worrying global trend of sabotage against subsea cables.”
On Wednesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office dismissed the accusations, claiming undersea cable damage is part of common maritime accidents. It claimed Taiwan was making baseless accusations against China and exaggerating “so-called grey zone threats.”
During the incident, Taiwanese officials could not board the ship to investigate or question the captain because of bad weather. It has asked South Korea to help investigate as the ship heads to Busan this week.