TAIPEI: Taiwanese authorities are investigating a Hong Kong-owned cargo ship suspected of damaging an undersea telecommunications cable northeast of the island, Taiwan’s coast guard mentioned on Monday (Jan 6).
The Cameroon-flagged vessel was intercepted by the coast guard on Friday after Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom reported harm to an undersea cable.
The vessel, owned by a Hong Kong individual and crewed by seven Chinese nationals, was ordered to return to waters off the port of Keelung in northern Taiwan for an inspection, the coast guard mentioned in an announcement. Note.
But coast guard personnel have been unable to board the vessel resulting from tough seas and an excessive amount of time had handed to detain the vessel, so it was allowed to sail to the port of Busan in South Korea.
Taiwan has requested South Korean authorities for help in investigating the vessel, which additionally sails underneath the flag of Tanzania with two units of Automatic Identification System indicators, the coast guard mentioned.
“An evaluation of the vessel’s historic trajectory has but to disclose its true intent,” the Coast Guard mentioned.
“However, the likelihood {that a} Chinese-flagged vessel is engaged in grey zone harassment can’t be dominated out,” it mentioned, referring to ways that don’t quantity to an act of conflict.
China regards Taiwan as a part of its territory and has threatened to make use of pressure to convey the self-ruled island underneath its management.
In latest years, Beijing has stepped up navy stress on Taipei, fearing that China could lower off communications with the island as a part of an try and seize it.
Chunghwa’s telecommunications service rapidly returned to regular on Friday after activating a backup mechanism, the semi-official Central News Agency mentioned.
