Undersea Cable War: A Threat Taiwan Knows Too Well

Photo: A boat near the southeastern coast of Taiwan, Taitung County. Photo by: Lin Wei-Lun

What is happening?

Several weeks after two submarine communication cables in Europe were allegedly severed by the Yi Peng 3, a Chinese cargo ship, a similar incident occurred off the coast of Taiwan. At 7:45 AM on Friday, January 3, the Tamsui Coast Guard station received a report about the incident from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest and partially state-owned telecom service provider. A vessel with a Chinese crew of seven, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, severed communication cables. While Europe is only beginning to recognize and adapt to such threats, Taiwan has been contending with a “cable war” for a significant time.

 

What is the broader picture?

On Friday, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom reported the Chinese-owned vessel “Shunxing39” damaged an undersea communications cable off the country’s north coast. According to Chunghwa Telecom and the Coast Guard Administration, the subsea cable was reportedly damaged last Friday by the Shunxing39, a freighter sailing under the Cameroonian flag, northeast of Yehliu, New Taipei. While officially registered in Africa, Taiwanese authorities have linked the vessel to Jie Yang Trading Limited, a Hong Kong-registered company led by a Chinese national. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) deployed the patrol to intercept the vessel, which was ordered to return to waters near the Port of Keelung for further investigation. The ship’s broadcast system and satellite data showed it had dragged its anchor at the site of the cable damage. A Taiwanese security official called it part of a growing global trend of sabotage against undersea cables. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office dismissed the claim, calling it a routine maritime accident and accusing Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party of “manipulating anti-mainland sentiment.”

Taiwanese officials, however, emphasized that these incidents are not isolated and that the vessels involved have shown unusual navigation patterns. Unlike previous cases affecting domestic submarine cables, Chunghwa Telecom noted that this cable is a major trans-Pacific link between Taiwan and the US, co-owned by multiple international telecom operators, including Chunghwa Telecom, AT&T (US), NTT (Japan), Korea Telecom, China Telecom, and China Unicom. Nevertheless, CGA states that the probable Legislative Yuan’s budget reduction of at least NT$2.9 billion next year will severely impact its ability to counter China’s gray-zone incursions.

 

Why does it matter?

The existing international legal frameworks provide limited protection for submarine data cables and lack effective accountability measures. The 1884 Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables criminalizes intentional or negligent cable damage, while the Sea 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea  (UNCLOS) permits but does not require states to enact protective laws. Few nations have sufficient domestic regulations, and UNCLOS mandates punishment only for flag-state vessels damaging cables beyond territorial waters.

UNCLOS incorporates key provisions from the 1884 Cable Convention regarding the protection of undersea cables. It grants countries the freedom to lay submarine cables and requires coastal states to protect them. It covers various aspects, such as cable installation, the rights of coastal states, and legal liability for damage to submarine cables. These provisions apply across different maritime zones, including territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, continental shelves, and the high seas. Article 21 of UNCLOS addresses how coastal countries may regulate their territorial waters, including rules for “innocent passage,” which refers to the safe transit of ships through these waters.

Taiwan has been grappling with undersea cable sabotage for several years. Between 2016 and 2020, communication cables linking Matsu (馬祖) to the main island were severed repeatedly.

In response to the 2023  Matsu cable incident, Taiwan revised the Telecommunications Management Act in June 2023, imposing stricter penalties for cable disruptions and extending jurisdiction to extraterritorial offenses under articles 72 and 72-1. However, enforcing Taiwan’s judicial authority over foreign vessels might present another challenge. National security officials emphasize three key measures for prevention: enhancing undersea cable resilience, establishing an international alert system, and creating a global framework for accountability. International cooperation is crucial to deter future incidents.

As a maritime nation, Taiwan’s global connectivity is deeply reliant on the increasingly vital security of its submarine cables. Given that internet connectivity is essential to the logistics of nearly every industry it’s hard to fully grasp the farreaching consequences of an internet outage for Taiwan, especially considering its role as a tech powerhouse in microchip manufacturing.