A cargo ship with a Chinese background, the “Hongtai 58,” was accused of breaking the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable on February 25. The captain, surnamed Wang, denied the allegations and refused to disclose the mastermind behind the incident. The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office completed its investigation in April and filed charges, leading to the trial in Tainan District Court. Today, the court sentenced Wang to 3 years in prison, with the option to appeal.
The “Hongtai 58” (the external appearance of the vessel suggests “Hongtai 168”) was implicated in the breaking of the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable on February 25. Captain Wang, of Chinese nationality, was detained and denied communication access. The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office concluded its investigation on April 11 and brought charges against Wang, transferring the case to Tainan District Court for trial. The court was requested to impose appropriate penalties, while the other 7 crew members, not implicated in the crime, were deported in April.
In its ruling today, Tainan District Court found Captain Wang guilty of damaging the submarine cable under the Telecommunications Management Act and sentenced him to 3 years in prison. The court’s press release mentioned that at a depth of 5 nautical miles off the coast of Beimen District, Tainan, there is the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable, maintained by Chunghwa Telecom. The cargo ship “Hongtai 58” from Togo marked the location of the submarine cable on its electronic chart, and the area was designated as a no-anchoring zone.
Captain Wang of the “Hongtai 58” cargo ship, from the night of February 22 to the early hours of the 25th, instructed crew members Qin and Zhang to release 6 sections of anchor chains (about 160 meters long) and anchor claws into the water. However, the anchor claws were not properly secured to the seabed, causing the ship’s hull to remain unstable, and Captain Wang allowed the vessel to hover in a zigzag pattern on the surface.
Upon receiving reports from coast guard personnel about the ship hovering in the restricted zone, at 2:30 am on February 25, the Fourth Coast Guard team drove a patrol boat to the location to drive off the cargo ship and request it to weigh anchor and depart. The cargo ship completely weighed anchor at 3:08 am that day, causing the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable to snap due to the external forces from the ship’s anchor, disrupting communication signals.
Captain Wang admitted to instructing the crew to drop anchor but denied the charge of damaging the cable, claiming only negligence. However, the Tainan District Court determined that Captain Wang willfully dropped anchor, allowing the ship to wander in the area in an unsecured condition, resulting in the breaking of the Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable due to the anchor’s pull.
The Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable is a vital communication infrastructure in the country. Damage to the cable would impede telephone and broadband communication between Taiwan Island and Penghu, creating a public danger of communication interruptions and significantly disrupting government and societal operations in various fields, affecting a wide range of aspects. Chunghwa Telecom incurred repair costs of over NT$17 million and shipping agency fees exceeding NT$1.8 million due to the cable damage.
Based on the aforementioned criminal facts, the court sentenced Captain Wang to 3 years in prison as a warning to others.