Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times,
Cargo vessels accused of sabotaging undersea fiber-optic cables are sheltering in China or else have disappeared from tracking services in recent weeks.
Bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-owned and operated cargo ship, is alleged to have cut two vital communications cables in the Baltic Sea last November by dragging its anchor in a zigzag pattern for more than 100 miles.
The Danish navy guarded the vessel for a time while an international team negotiated with China’s communist leadership to board it as part of an investigation into potential sabotage.
The Yi Peng 3 suddenly left the area of its own accord after an international team interrogated some of the crew, however, and was not stopped due to a lack of jurisdiction in international waters.
International leadership is still struggling to piece together the vessel’s intent.
The vessel and its crew have returned to China, however, and are safely anchored in the port city of Qinzhou, according to the ship’s automatic identification system (AIS).
Similarly, the Hong Kong-flagged Newnew Polar Bear is now moored in Zhoushan, China, after allegedly coordinating with a Russian container ship to sabotage a natural gas pipeline and two nearby fiber-optic cables connecting Finland and Estonia in October 2023.
Estonia requested that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities allow it to seek evidence from the vessel and its crew at the time, but was rebuffed.
Nearly a year later, the CCP claimed to have conducted its own investigation, saying that the vessel had accidentally caused the damage during a large storm.
Estonia and Finland continue to conduct a criminal inquiry into the matter.
Other China-operated vessels that are suspected of sabotage have disappeared from the public eye altogether.
The Shunxin 39, also known as the Xing Shun 39, a cargo ship owned by a Hong Kong-based company, is believed to have damaged one of the 14 cables linking Taiwan to mainland Asia in 2023.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard sent a ship to investigate after receiving a report of connection problems from a local telecommunications firm, saying that an undersea cable had been damaged off the island’s northern coast.
The Coast Guard exchanged radio communications with the ship but was unable to board because of bad weather.
Authorities subsequently ordered the cargo vessel to head to Taiwan’s Keelung port for investigation, but the ship continued toward China.
Complicating matters was the fact that the vessel appeared to carry two or possibly three AIS devices, variously identifying it as a China-flagged ship, a Tanzania-flagged ship, and a Cameroon-flagged ship.
GPS data obtained by Taiwanese authorities showed the ship crisscrossing over multiple subsea cables, possibly while dragging its anchor to cut the cables.
Shortly thereafter, in January of this year, the Shunxin 39 turned off its identification systems while sailing toward China, and has since remained dark or else is now sailing under a different identity.
Several days after the Shunxin 39 went dark, the Mongolia-flagged but Chinese-operated Bao Shun cargo ship began moving in a zigzag pattern through the waters near Taiwan before being driven off by the coast guard while turning its AIS on and off.
The Bao Shun returned a month later, crossing into Taiwan’s restricted waters on Jan. 30 and crossing over the area of several undersea cables.
However, despite making more than 50 port calls in Taiwan over the past three years the vessel has only logged a single stop at another port when it went to Hong Kong briefly after being driven off by Taiwanese authorities in January.
The Bao Shun is currently in the Taiwan Strait according to AIS data.
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