Following the suspicion that Chinese vessels cut undersea cables in the Baltic Sea by dragging their anchors, another Chinese ship is now being questioned for allegedly cutting undersea cables around Taiwan. The previously exposed patented technology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) using anchor dragging to cut undersea cables has once again attracted attention.
On January 4th, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration website released a press release stating that at 7:45 a.m. on January 3rd, a 4-core damage occurred to an undersea international cable in the northeast sea area of Yehliu. The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration Tangshui Coast Guard team received a report from Chunghwa Telecom at 12:40 p.m. on the same day, with Chunghwa Telecom stating that the line has other backup equipment and does not affect Taiwan’s communication. It is preliminarily judged to have been caused by the Cameroon-flagged vessel “SHUNXIN39” passing through the area.
Although this ship flies the flag of Cameroon, according to Taiwan officials cited by the Financial Times, the ship is owned by “Jie Yang Trading Limited,” registered in Hong Kong and owned by a Chinese citizen, Guo Wenjie.
The damaged cable is part of the trans-Pacific high-speed cable system. Taiwan authorities are concerned that the CCP may secretly cut off Taiwan’s external communication links in an attempt to annex Taiwan, as the CCP has never given up its intention to reunify Taiwan by force.
According to data from the vessel tracking and maritime analysis provider MarineTraffic, “SHUNXIN39” has been shuttling in waters near the northern coast of Taiwan since December 1, 2025. Taiwanese officials say this pattern indicates that the cable damage was not an accidental incident. Taiwan coast guard and other government officials also stated that the vessels’ automatic identification system signals and satellite tracking data show that “SHUNXIN39” dragged its anchor at the location of the cable break.
A senior Taiwanese national security official told the Financial Times, “This is another worrying case of a global trend in disrupting undersea cables.” “Vessels involved in these incidents are usually old and have almost no legitimate business. The condition of this ship (SHUNXIN39) is also very poor. It is similar to Russian ‘shadow fleet’ vessels.”
A Taiwanese coast guard ship conducted an external inspection of the vessel last Friday (January 3), but officials were unable to board the ship due to inclement weather. Taiwan has requested the assistance of Korean authorities at the ship’s next destination port for investigation.
On November 17-18 last year, two Baltic Sea cables connecting Finland and Germany, as well as Sweden and Lithuania, were suspected of being deliberately severed in Swedish waters, with the Chinese bulk carrier “Yi Peng 3” swiftly identified. Despite the CCP’s promise to “cooperate” with regional authorities, Beijing refused to allow prosecutors to board for inspection. Eventually, “Yi Peng 3” left the international waters between Denmark and Sweden without incident.
Many netizens from various countries have expressed deep concern, stating that these actions are all “deliberate sabotage” and are part of the CCP’s “unrestricted warfare” tactics.
Epoch Times previously reported that the CCP authorities had long had a series of patented technologies to quickly and secretly cut undersea cables.
Among them, the data of a patent application titled “A Drag-Type Undersea Cable Cutting Device and Its Cable Cutting Method” (application number 202010023556.8, patent publication number CN111203499A) published by the CCP Patent Office in 2020. The patent description and accompanying illustrations show that the invention has a cutting blade installed on the anchor of the ship, which can quickly cut undersea fiber optic cables as the ship drags the anchor at sea, with detailed operating instructions.
Shen Mingshi, Director of the Institute of National Security at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, previously told Epoch Times in an interview that these patented inventions by the CCP prove that the Chinese navy or other government-supported research institutions have developed specialized equipment for cutting undersea cables. Whether it is cables around Taiwan or undersea cables in European waters being cut, it can almost be confirmed as deliberate acts by Chinese cargo ships.