TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A suspected Chinese freighter that was previously driven away by the Coast Guard has again been detected off Taiwan's coast — amid concerns about undersea cable sabotage.
Facebook page Taiwan ADIZ on Thursday reported the Bao Shun crossed the median line from waters off Guangzhou Province's Shantou into waters southwest of Taiwan on Jan. 30. It remained within Taiwan’s restricted waters between Hengchun and Tainan.
The vessel passed over the submarine cables near Pingtung County's Fangshan Township, as well as off the coasts of the Port of Kaohsiung, Zuoying Naval Base, and the Port of Anping from Tuesday to Wednesday. Taiwan ADIZ warned, “Its movements are highly suspicious and warrant close attention!”
Also on Thursday, Ray Powell, director of Sealight at Stanford’s Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said on X the Bao Shun was near Taiwan's coast and Penghu County's Qimei Island.
Powell said that on Jan. 6, Bao Shun was spotted taking an erratic course over subsea cables off north Taiwan, prompting the Coast Guard to drive the vessel away. The ship then moved north of Pengjia Islet and in and out of Taiwan's 22 km (12 nautical miles) territorial waters in a southwest-northeast direction for five days, per Liberty Times.
Powell said that records of the ship's movements around Taiwan first appeared on Feb. 27, 2023. He said that since March 1, 2023, Bao Shun had visited the Port of Kaohsiung 50 times.
He noted that it was curious that the supposed “cargo ship” had never visited another port until it was driven away in January. He said it was not until Jan. 27 that the Bao Shun visited a port in Hong Kong, where it stayed for just 72 minutes.
Powell said that Bao Shun again returned to Taiwan's southwest coast on Feb. 1, “where it now again loiters.” He found it suspicious that over 136 days of automatic information system data is missing for the ship as its required safety equipment was switched off in a state he described as “running dark.”
Powell said Bao Shun's owner and operator, Hong Kong Changhang Shipping, has just one “cargo ship that seems to go nowhere and transport nothing.”
Powell added the Bao Shun had 28 encounters at sea, 15 of which were with its “constant companion,” the Mongolia-flagged and Hong Kong-registered Smoothly. He said the Smoothly has exclusively operated out of Taiwan ports until recently.
As of 9:25 a.m. on Friday, the Bao Shun was located southwest of Qimei Island, per Marine Traffic.
