An undersea communication cable near Keelung Port and Yehliu was recently damaged, allegedly by a Chinese cargo vessel, Shunxing 39, dragging its anchor along the ocean floor. Benjamin L. Schmitt, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and former U.S. State Department European energy security advisor, highlighted that the cable, extending from northern Taiwan across the Indo-Pacific to the U.S. West Coast, holds significant strategic value. Schmitt suggested the damage was likely a deliberate act.
Taiwan is not alone in facing such incidents. In October 2023, two data cables between Finland and Estonia were damaged by a Hong Kong-flagged vessel registered in China. In November 2024, two critical Baltic Sea communication cables—one linking Germany and Finland, and another connecting Sweden and Lithuania—were sabotaged. The main suspect was also a Chinese vessel. In December 2024, the undersea power cable Estlink 2, which transfers electricity from Finland to Estonia, was damaged along with its grid. A Chinese commercial vessel was again implicated, prompting intense scrutiny from Nordic and Baltic nations. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock remarked that “damages to subsea cables in the Baltic Sea occur nearly every month.”
National security experts stress the need to enhance the resilience of undersea cables through inspections and preventative measures. They also advocate for a global punitive mechanism to deter deliberate infrastructure sabotage. The resilience of undersea cables was a key focus during the Taiwanese Presidential Office’s urban resilience exercises in December 2024 and is expected to remain central to the committee’s discussions in 2025.
