Taiwanese coast guard captain Juan Chung-ching’s (阮俊慶) patrol boat moves across the Taiwan Strait, scanning for threats to what Taipei said is the newest target of China’s “gray zone” warfare: undersea cables vital to the nation’s communications.
Juan steered his 100-tonne vessel, armed with water cannons and an autocannon, toward TP3, the undersea cable that made international headlines this year when a Chinese captain was found guilty of deliberately severing it.
TP3 is one of 24 undersea cables connecting Taiwan to the domestic or global Internet.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Such missions have become a top priority to combat China’s “gray zone” warfare, a tactic to drain Taiwan’s resources while falling short of an act of war, Juan said.
On Aug. 28, Reuters became the first news media outlet to join one of these patrols.
“Their incursions have severely undermined the peace and stability of Taiwanese society,” Juan said, whose boat escorted the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58 (鴻泰58號) for investigation hours after TP3 went offline in February.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“We are stepping up patrols in this area, monitoring for any vessels engaging in disruptive or destructive activities,” he said.
Taiwanese authorities have connected two incidents of suspected underwater sabotage with China-linked boats this year, including one in Taiwan’s north.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has said that Taiwan was “manipulating” possible Chinese involvement in the severing of undersea cables and making up accusations before the facts were clear.
Taiwan’s stepped-up response comes with the Baltic Sea region on high alert after a string of suspected underwater sabotage incidents since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
In the waters near TP3, coast guard vessels are now conducting 24-hour patrols.
An alert system detects vessels that come within a 1km range off TP3 at slow speed, while dozens of operators at radar stations work to identify suspicious ships, the coast guard said.
Radio warnings are issued to those boats before coast guard vessels are dispatched to warn them away.
“Taiwan ranks among the top countries facing this issue,” National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said. “We are indeed very close to China and many densely populated submarine cable areas are highly vulnerable to damage.”
The task has stretched coast guard resources. Their eight boats and nearly 500 officers in the area are also responsible for life-saving missions and enforcing maritime law.
High on their watch list are 96 China-linked boats blacklisted by Taiwan. Many carry flags of convenience registered to third countries to avoid taxes and regulations.
Taiwan is also monitoring nearly 400 other China-linked boats, including cargo ships that could be converted into war vehicles, a senior Taiwanese security official briefed on the matter said.
Taipei and other “like-minded” capitals are sharing intelligence on the real-time locations of these boats, the official said.
“Those ships are like cannon fodder, piles of scrap metal,” said Jenson Chien, commander of a coast guard flotilla near TP3, pointing to several dilapidated Chinese boats.
“They employ minimal resources to disrupt and sever our connections, sowing unrest throughout Taiwanese society,” he said.
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