Taiwanese prosecutors have formally charged the captain of a Chinese-crewed cargo ship that Taipei says severed one of its subsea cables earlier this year.
The Togo-flagged Hong Tai 58 was detained by Taiwan’s coastguard in February near the site of a cable breakdown amid allegations that it had deliberately dropped its anchor to cause damage.
The ship’s captain, who was only identified to the public by his surname Wang, was charged on Friday with being responsible for the incident, the prosecutors said.
Seven Chinese nationals who were on board the ship will not be charged, and will be transported back to China, the prosecutors added.
The case marks a first for Taiwan, where subsea cables have become the latest front in what is described as “hybrid warfare” or “grey zone activity” with China. The terms refer to low-grade coercive acts such as sabotage that hold a certain degree of plausible deniability.
China has long claimed Taiwan, an island with a population of 23 million, as a province of the mainland and has threatened to annex it by force, if necessary.
China has yet to reply to the charges against Wang, but it has previously accused Taipei of “manipulating” the facts of the accident to cast Beijing in a bad light.
Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, previously described the subsea cable incident as a “common maritime accident”.
Wang declined to provide Taiwanese authorities with information about the ship’s ownership, according to prosecutors, but the Hong Tai 58 is believed to be a so-called Chinese “dark ship” acting unofficially on behalf of Beijing.
“Dark ships” have earned their name due to the practice of broadcasting multiple or false identities to maritime authorities. Sometimes the vessels may turn off identification signals to avoid detection, according to industry experts.
Since 2023, there have been at least 11 cases of subsea cable breakdowns around Taiwan, although some were later ruled as accidents or due to the old age of the equipment.
Subsea cables are the backbone of the internet and global telecoms industry, but they are also susceptible to breakdowns from movements on the sea floor or human activity.
Between 100 and 200 cable breakdowns occur each year, according to industry data, and proving damage as deliberate is notoriously difficult and a challenge for governments beyond Taipei.
Countries around the Baltic Sea have also seen an uptick in subsea cable breakdowns since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and they have also struggled to bring legal cases against Chinese and Russia-linked ships and their owners.
