Taiwan’s coastguard says it ‘cannot be ruled out that it was a grey zone intrusion by China’

Summary

Taiwan’s coastguard detained a Togolese-flagged cargo ship with a Chinese crew after an undersea communications cable connecting Taiwan to Penghu was cut.

Authorities suspect a possible “grey zone” act—hostile interference short of warfare—by China but have not ruled out an accident.

The ship, which initially ignored radio contact, was intercepted and escorted to port. Taiwan has been monitoring Chinese-linked vessels under flags of convenience due to previous cable damage incidents.

Chunghwa Telecom activated a backup cable, preventing communication disruptions.

  • @[email protected]English
    8•2 days ago

    Damage is damage. You are not getting away cutting someone car by chainsaw and saying “oh it was an accident. It so unfeasible to follow all those safety rules”

    • @[email protected]English
      -3•2 days ago

      You can’t see the cables from the surface. If the maps don’t include them, which was a point I already made, they may have no idea at all what they’ve done, and they may not have any reasonable way at all to predict it. There’s almost 200 million square miles of ocean. How likely do you think it is to drop anchor on a cable? It’s not a reasonable concern a huge portion of the time, and, again, I’m not convinced they know they’re there.