The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon.
Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan.
The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday.
Photo copied by Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the issue, adding that it has forwarded all evidence and statements to prosecutors.
Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said yesterday that while the incident was pending investigation, China has a long history of sabotaging Taiwanese infrastructure using maritime tactics.
Ho said that the incident was a Chinese ploy to gauge the point at which the international community would draw a red line in an attempt to escalate its “gray zone” tactics.
Ho said such tactics were one reason Taiwan is working to launch its own low and medium Earth orbit satellites and increase telecom resilience.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
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US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
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