China sabotaging submarine cables near Taiwan underscores the US’ need to bolster Taiwan’s telecommunications infrastructure and monitor vessels in the Taiwan Strait, the top US Indo-Pacific commander said.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, who heads the US Indo-Pacific Command, made the remarks at a US Senate hearing after Taiwan on Friday for the first time indicted the Chinese captain of a Togolese-registered vessel that allegedly severed an undersea communication cable linking Taiwan proper and Penghu in February.
US Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen asked the admiral to elaborate on attacks by Chinese ships on Taiwan’s undersea cables.
Photo: Reuters
Paparo said that severing the cables is part of China’s “gray zone” activities directed against Taiwan that fall short of war, but could destabilize the region and serve as a prelude of war.
The use of its maritime militia in the operations enabled Beijing to damage a state’s “information enterprise ... without potentially signaling an intent to go to war,” he said.
US intelligence services need to penetrate locations vulnerable to cable attacks to detect and deter such operations before they could be launched, Paparo said.
In addition, the US should develop redundant capabilities in the form of low and medium Earth orbit satellites to ensure that communication between Taiwan and the US and its allies are not dependent on cables alone, he said.
Washington’s efforts should be oriented toward bolstering Taiwan’s resilience so that China could not isolate Taiwan even if the US failed to prevent submarine cables from being cut, he said.
Separately, Paparo said the Chinese Liberation Army (PLA) last year saw significant growth in its capabilities in continuing its campaign to menace Taiwan.
PLA forces engaged in harassing activities in the Taiwan Strait and beyond has increased threefold from previous years, he added.
Chinese military activities around Taiwan proper is more properly defined as rehearsals for invasion than drills or exercises, he said.
Beijing’s aggressive posture has backfired as it has drawn global concern and spurred Taiwan to accelerate its defense, Paparo said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS