An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible.
It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor.
The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said.
Photo copied by Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰) freighter anchored near the cable, the CGA said in a news release.
The ship was in the area from Saturday at about 7:10pm to around the time when Chunghwa Telecom reported that the cable had been severed, it said.
When the CGA received another report at 3am that the cable had been severed and that external force could have been responsible, it said it stopped the vessel and called for reinforcements.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
Although coast guard personnel could not board and inspect the ship due to a difference in height, it was escorted back to port in Tainan, where prosecutors have started their investigation after detaining the crew, it said.
Despite flying Togo’s flag, Hong Tai is Chinese-owned and all eight crew members on board are Chinese, the CGA said.
Furthermore, the ship’s automatic identification system name does not match what it identified itself as over the radio or what is written on the hull, the CGA said.
After the cable was severed, the digital ministry ordered the company to redirect traffic to other cables connecting Taiwan’s main island to its offshore islands.
The company was also instructed to add the cable to its repair schedule, coordinating with a repair vessel currently in Kaohsiung working to fix the previously damaged Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 and No. 3 cables.
Those two cables are expected to be fully completed by the end of this month and next month, respectively, with the cable connecting Penghu to be fixed afterward, the ministry said.
The ministry has submitted a report to the Executive Yuan labeling Taiwan’s undersea cables as critical infrastructure.
It also said it would move to strengthen Taiwan’s resilience to such issues by establishing more monitoring stations and subsidizing telecom operators’ capacity to repair cables and invest in backup communication infrastructure such as microwave systems.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
RSS