Prosecutors in Taiwan are charging a Chinese ship captain with severing an undersea cable off Taiwan’s southwest coast. It's the first time Taiwan has indicted somebody on such charges.
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00:01Prosecutors in Taiwan are charging a Chinese ship captain with severing an undersea cable off Taiwan's southwest coast.
00:09Rees Ayers is live with us in the newsroom with more details.
00:12Rees, this arrest sets a new precedent for Taiwan, doesn't it?
00:19It does, Joyce. It's actually the first time that Taiwan has ever charged someone with cutting an undersea cable.
00:26Taiwan's pretty serious about protecting these cables.
00:30They're important infrastructure for transferring mass amounts of data and information.
00:35Taiwan's got several of these cable systems running from its main island to some of its outlying territories, including Jinmen and to Penghu.
00:45Now, this particular accident or this particular incident happened back in February involving a boat called the Hongtai 58 and the undersea cable from Taiwan to Penghu, cable number three.
01:01Now, authorities spotted that ship off Taiwan's southwest coast, was loitering in the waters there for a few days.
01:09And then on February 25th, Taiwan's biggest telecom company, Zhonghua, reported that the cable actually had been severed.
01:18Now, the ship is suspected of dropping its anchor, hooking the cable and then tugging on it until it broke.
01:27Now, Taiwan's Coast Guard then boarded that ship, which is actually registered in the African country of Togo,
01:35and then detaining all eight crew members on that ship who were all Chinese.
01:40Now, only the ship's captain has actually been charged.
01:43The other seven crew members have been deported back to China due to a lack of evidence.
01:49Right. So this is the first time a person is being charged over such a crime here, but it's not the first time for one of Taiwan's cables to be cut.
02:03No, it's actually at least one of two incidences of cables being cut this year involving Chinese ships.
02:12And actually, just a few weeks ago, China announced that they had developed new technology,
02:17a remote device that can go into the world's deepest waters and cut the world's strongest cables.
02:24Remember, China actually claims Taiwan as part of its territory and recently has been ramping up efforts around the island to intimidate Taiwan,
02:34including large naval exercises and also simulated blockades.
02:39And so these cable cutting incidents are believed to be part of Beijing's ongoing grey grey zone warfare tactics,
02:49which is a way to intimidate and put pressure on Taiwan without actually attacking.
02:55But also there's an upcoming project involving Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the west coast of the United States that will link those four locations with an undersea cable.
03:07So right now it's probably not just Taiwan who's who's concerned about China's ongoing deep sea sabotage.