China accuses Taiwan of manipulating submarine cable incident

The Chinese government on Wednesday accused Taipei of manipulating Beijing's alleged involvement in the recent rupture of an undersea cable linking the main island of Taiwan to the Pescadores archipelago.

Spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Zhu Fenglian described the incident at a press conference as an “ ordinary maritime accident ” and accused authorities from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of “ deliberately exaggerating and politicizing ” the incident without first clarifying “the facts and responsibilities.”

The vessel allegedly involved in the incident, identified as the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai with eight Chinese crew members on board, has been linked to China by the Taiwan Coast Guard, fueling tensions between the two governments.

However, the spokeswoman stressed that “ more than a hundred similar incidents happen every year around the world ,” downplaying the significance of the incident.

“ This kind of political manipulation is unpopular and will not win public support ,” Zhu said, referring to the position of Taiwanese authorities.

China-linked ship detained in Taiwan for allegedly cutting undersea cable

The MP accused the DPP of trying to take “political advantage” of the case, a strategy that Beijing says will not be successful.

Taiwan currently has 14 international and 10 domestic submarine cables, according to Taiwan's National Security Office, which estimated that the island experiences an average of seven to eight cable-cutting incidents per year.

The island's authorities consider that the submarine cable cuts are part of China's " gray zone " activities (aggressive actions by a State, but without engaging in open war) aimed at putting pressure on the Taiwan government , currently led by William Lai Ching-te, considered a " separatist " and an " agitator " by the Beijing authorities.

The incident occurred at around 3am on Tuesday (7pm on Monday in Lisbon), when the CGA received a report from Chungwha Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecommunications company, indicating that the third submarine line connecting Taiwan to Pescadores (or Penghu in Chinese) had broken about six nautical miles (11.1 kilometres) northwest of the port of Jiangjun , in the south of the island.

According to the CGA, the Hong Tai was anchored in this same position, located just 0.5 nautical miles north of the route of the third submarine cable, since 7:10 pm (11:10 am in Lisbon) on February 22.

Chungwha Telecom said there was “no impact” on communications services following the disruption.

The telecommunications company stressed that it will present evidence of the incident to the courts “to claim compensation in accordance with the law” and stated that the repair of the damaged cable could be completed “by May at the latest”.