Far East: The Rift Between Chinese Vessels and Taiwan’s Undersea Cables, Explained
Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs displays a map of its undersea cables in a news conference. via Reuters.
The actions and prosecution were initiated after the Togolese-flagged cargo vessel Hong Tai 58, manned by an all-Chinese crew, was detained by Taiwanese authorities for severing an undersea communication cable linking Taiwan’s main island to the Penghu Islands. The prosecution made on April 11th marks the new chapter of the tense geopolitical climate in the Taiwan Strait.
This is Taiwan’s first criminal prosecution for the undersea cable damage, a warning to other Chinese vessels that Taiwan said was “deliberately tasked” with damaging its cables.
What Happened?
This incident is the byproduct of the immensely tense relationship between China and Taiwan, with the U.S. and its allies in the background of this upended conflict. The ship in question, the Hong Tai 58, was a cargo vessel, registered in Togo, with a fully Chinese crew. As such, it was believed that it was registered in Togo as a flag of convenience. The vessel was reportedly damaging the undersea communication cable by dropping its anchor in a designated anchoring zone and starting to drag the anchor in a zigzag pattern across the seabed until it eventually damaged the cable.
taiwan’s vast undersea communication cable network, connecting it with its territories closer to mainland china, hong kong, macau, as well as cities in south korea such as busan and seoul, nagoya and tokyo in japan, and numorious countries in southeast asia. via teleGeography.
The cable in question that the Hong Tai 58 has damaged was the country’s Chunghwa Telecom’s communication cable, which connects mainland Taiwan and Penghu Island in the Taiwan Strait, to the west of the main island. In light of this event, the Hong Tai 58, too, has dropped its anchor in a designated area and dragged the anchor across the ocean floor, causing substantial damage to the cable. The ship, like in the previous case, was moving in a zigzag pattern—a movement Taiwanese authorities described as deliberate and cited as evidence in the prosecution.
Court Fights
Taiwan Coast Guard vessels surrounding the Hong Tai 58 in February 2025. Taiwan Coast Guard via Reuters.
The Taiwanese prosecution has detained the ship’s captain, only identified by his surname as Mr. “Wang,” and has put charges against him under the Telecommunication Management Act. This marks the first prosecution of its kind, in which an individual has been charged for damaging undersea communication cables. If the ship’s captain, Mr. “Wang”, was indeed found guilty, the hefty penalties can include up to 7 years in prison and a fine of over $300,000.
As the charges were read to him, however, Mr. Wang denied them all, and offered no explanation of his motives in this act. He has also denied disclosing any information about the ship, including the ship’s owner. According to the interrogators, Mr. Wang has shown a stark, uncooperative behaviour and attitude during the investigation. This has made prosecuting him harder to justify as there is very little information about the ship, the motive, and who is behind this incident, known to the public. The Taiwanese government, however, maintains that it has every reason to believe the act was deliberate and orchestrated by the Chinese government.
Context Clues
Taiwanese coast guards boarding the Togo-registered freighter the Hong Tai. via the Coast Guard Administration.
Since 2025 began, Taiwan has reported over 5 cases, similar to Hong Tai 58’s deliberate actions. This represents a significant spike in incidents involving Chinese-crewed ships flying flags of convenience damaging Taiwan’s undersea communication cables, with only three such cases reported in 2023 and 2024 respectively. These incidents have sparked concerns about the potential new “grey zone”, a tactic that China has used to perform coercive actions that openly cause conflicts in the region. An example of the notorious “grey zone” is China’s nine-dash line, a vague, nine dashes drawn across South China Sea that China have used to assert its claim over almost the entirety of the South China Sea, overlapping with multiple Southeast Asian nations’ EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone).
china’s nine-dash line. via Voice of America.
As seen in recent years, the conflict in the nine-dash line claims has intensified, widely affecting the countries in the region, namely Vietnam and the Philippines. Taiwan, while also partly affected by that conflict, also got a bigger conflict on its hands. With the looming assertion of China’s military prowess and economic grip, Taiwan wants to remain in the status quo and does not want to create more conflicts that could potentially harm its own economy and people. Therefore, Taiwan’s response to this incident has been considered mild, with Taiwan’s coast guard increased its intensity to monitoring effort, including an effort to track almost 100 China-linked ships that are registered under flags of convenience, Taiwan has also chosen to prosecute the Hong Tai 58’s captain as a warning to other vessels, tempted to carry out the sabotage, with the harsh consequences those individuals may receive.
International Reception
Taiwan’s coastguard vessels being used to detect its said suspected China-linked ship, damaging an undersea cable off its coast. Via Reuters.
On the other side of the conflict, China has accused Taiwan of manipulating the incident to cast aspersions and of overextending the prosecution. China has also denied that any of the Hong Tai 58’s crew had any intention of damaging the cable and therefore, is not considered to have committed any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, from Europe and the U.S., analysts and officials have expressed grave concerns over this “grey zone” tactic that has been spreading far and wide across the region. They have mentioned that these tactics could be the main reason for the targeting of undersea cables, a critical resource to Taiwan’s global communication and financial transactions.
the danish military monitoring a chinese cargo vessel, yi peng 3, after suspecting that it has ruptured its undersea data cables last november. mikkel berg pedersen/ritzau scanpix via ap.
Similar incidents have also occurred in another part of the world—the Baltic Sea—where tensions between the European Union and Russia have intensified, and Chinese vessels have likewise been suspected of involvement in damaging undersea cables. With that event in mind, the recent development in Taiwan has prompted the NATO member nations to increase their surveillance and protective measures for undersea communication cables.
This incident marks the recent development in the Taiwan strait where many of the tactics have been used by China to force Taiwan into its vision of reunification; a vision that has been China’s top priority since the time of Mao Zedong. With the international community’s heightened awareness of these tactics, however, China may have a more difficult time trying to justify its actions, including sabotaging undersea communication cables.