China totally encircles Taiwan with warships, warplanes & aircraft carrier vowing ‘we are prepared for battle’
They were also forced to allow the vessel to leave for South Korea as they couldn’t hold it any longer under international law, officials said.
The company’s only listed director is a mainland Chinese man called Guo Wenjie, officials added.
Cable cutting on ships has already sparked global concerns following a similar incident that saw a Russian ship allegedly cut a key Finish power cable with its anchor.
Officers hunted down the suspected culprit and ordered it to return to the water around the Port of Keelung.
It is believed to have been purchased by Jie Yang Trading Limited who are registered in Hong Kong.
A Moscow-linked ship was accused of being involved in damaging undersea cables recently.
Senior Taiwanese national security official
This could lead to the country being separated from the rest of the world and vulnerable to Chinese attacks.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing’s control.
Beijing has constantly claimed sovereignty over the island has spent the past few months threatening to seize it by any means necessary.
Chunghwa Telecom said the broken data connections were immediately fixed by rerouting data to other international subsea cables.
Officials believe the ship was a 751ft Eagle S part of Russia’s “shadow” or “dark” fleet operated by Putin to evade sanctions.
This link to the enemy sparked concerns for the Taiwanese authorities who are concerned this could be the start of secret operations to cut off external communications.
Tensions in the region could boil over in 2025 with China’s president Xi Jinping vowing to “reunify” with Taiwan as he continues to stage harrowing military exercises in the nearby waters.
FEARS are mounting over potential Chinese sabotage after a deep sea cable was reportedly sliced off near the Taiwanese coast.
A senior Taiwanese national security official said: “This is another case of a very worrying global trend of sabotage against subsea cables.
Taiwan has now called on help from South Korea to help track down the Shunxin 39 after it headed towards the country at the start of January.
It was first reported by Taiwanese telecoms operator Chunghwa Telecom who later got the national Coast Guard involved to help investigate.
“This one, too, is in very bad shape. It is similar to the ships that are part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’.”
And with tensions between the two nations high, Taiwan is likely to aid China’s enemy if it means keeping its independence.
China insists that its intentions are peaceful, but President Xi Jinping has also used threats towards the small island nation.
At the end of last year a Chinese bulk carrier was placed under investigation by Swedish authorities after two fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged.