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The Taiwanese coastal guard announced that she had captured a freight ship in Chinese owned by the cunning of the submarine of communication cables from its west coast early on Tuesday, the first encounter since Taipei launched the so -called shadow fleet in Beijing.
The Coast Guard said that in the prison of the ship, adding that although it is not clear whether the cable is intentionally separated, “it cannot be excluded that this is the act of Chinese harassment of the grayica.”
The case is the last in a series of incidents in recent months of the submarine that are separated, apparently involved in Chinese or Russian freight burden, including the Baltic Sea.
In November, the Chinese bracket carrier crossed over two data cables in the Baltic Sea at about the time they were cut, while the previous October, a container ship was registered in Hong Kong, followed near the damaged pipeline and cable in the region.
At the beginning of last month there was another Chinese -owned ship Suspected damage Transpacific cable from the northern coast of Taiwan after crossing the area.
This incident pushed Taipei into action, guided by concern that China, who claims Taiwan As his territory threatens to attach him to the attachment if necessary, he can use commercial vessels to damage the Earth.
Beijing enhanced such “Grayzone” operations, which have lacked a direct war in recent years, including air and naval maneuirs around Taiwan, Cyber attacks and harassment of their coastal guard and naval militia.
As a reaction to the incident of damage to the cable in January, the Taiwanese government drew a black list Chinese ownership vessels, which she said would be more proactive to follow and break into an effort to expose and disturb Beijing’s “Fleet Shadow”.
According to the coastal guard, the ship was detained on Tuesday, which identified itself as Hong Tai 168, flew under the flag of that. It is a prey from Saturday night near Tainan, in the southwestern Taiwan, half a nautical mile north of the cable that connected the archipelago in Penghu with the Taiwanese mainland.
After the ship failed to respond to seven consecutive radio messages asking to leave, the coastal guard sent a vessel and found that the cargo ship had reduced its anchor.
When the coastal guard arrived, the burden began to move. Shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard received a notice from the Chunghwa Telecom, a state operator, that the cable was damaged.
The vessel seemed to be one of hundreds of aging, destroyed freight ships that fly the flags of convenience and hide their identity.
The shipping databases do not cite a vessel called Hong Tai 168, which is shown on board. According to his automatic identification system, he is called Hong Tai 58, said the coastal guard.
Hong Tai 58 is on a black list in the shadow in Taiwan, seen by FT.
However, the unique number assigned to the International Maritime Organization used by the vessel belongs to the Jinlong 389 cargo ship, owned by Hong Kong, a registered Dongguan Jinlong Shipping Co, according to the web database of IMO.
The Coast Guard confirmed that the initial check showed that the ship was owned by the ship.
Jinlong 389 owners did not immediately respond to the comment request.
ChinaA spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Lin Jian said on Tuesday that he was not familiar with the incident and that it was not “associated with Chinese diplomacy”.
The Taiwanese coast guard boarded and seized the ship and brought it to his crew, which was completely Chinese, back to the port. The case was adopted by Taiwan prosecutors to investigate.
Additional Wenjie Ding reporting in Beijing
