The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) caused a national security risk when it released a ship that was suspected of cutting an undersea cable near Keelung Harbor without going through proper procedures, an official said yesterday.
Cameroon-registered freighter Shunxing-39 (順興39號), which is owned by a company in Hong Kong, had allegedly cut an international undersea communications cable at 7am on Jan. 3 and then turned off its automatic identification system signal, reports said.
Chunghwa Telecom reported the incident to the CGA five hours later.
Photo: Taipei Times
The coast guard located the ship at about 4:40pm, but did not board it for inspection or detain it at Keelung Harbor, raising national security concerns, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
The coast guard released the Shunxing-39, because its destination was Busan, South Korea, and it did not have the necessary documents to dock in Keelung Harbor, the CGA told the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee at a meeting at the legislature on Thursday.
Additionally, due to bad weather conditions, which prevented coast guard personnel from boarding Shunxing-39, and the lack of incriminating evidence, the ship was not detained, CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said.
The coast guard could only detain a foreign vessel if it was caught in the act of breaking the law, he said.
The anonymous official said the coast guard did not effectively investigate the incident, as it had only contacted Shunxing-39 through a phone call and failed to board it for inspection.
The coast guard should have reported the incident to the National Security Council before releasing the ship, they said, adding that the Maritime and Port Bureau was also at fault.
The bureau did not allow the ship to be brought into the port, saying that it would incur docking fees, which they lacked the budget for, the official said.
Although the Shunxing-39 is large and weather conditions were poor, the coast guard could have dispatched a larger ship to escort it to the port, they said.
Chunghwa Telecom is also partly to blame for its delay in reporting the incident, the official added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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