Earlier this month, a Chinese-linked vessel was suspected of cutting a Taiwanese undersea cable—the kind that carries the island’s high-speed communications data and links it with the rest of the world. All the crew members were Chinese nationals.
The incident has raised concerns of potential “gray zone operations” by China to hamper the island’s communications with the outside world.
Yun-Hu Yeh, associate professor of Taiwan Central Police University, said: “If our cable is cut, how long would it take for us to restore it? What would we do while it’s still severed? And if all of Taiwan’s submarine cables were cut at the same time, how long would the impact last, and how significant would the losses be? This [cable cutting] would allow China to estimate the outcome.”