Taiwan's coast guard has said that it suspects a ship damaged an undersea communications cable over the weekend, but that bad weather prevented its personnel from boarding the vessel to investigate.

In 2023, the outlying Matsu Islands, within view of the Chinese coast, endured patchy internet for months after two undersea internet cables broke. These fiber optic cables that connect Taiwan to the internet suffered about 30 such breaks between 2017 and 2023.

A Chinese-owned vessel is suspected of severing an undersea cable off the Taiwanese coast recently, according to authorities on the island. Taiwan’s coast guard requested that the cargo ship return to shore for an investigation,

Taiwan and China traded barbs over what the government in Taipei suspects was a Chinese-linked ship's damage to an undersea communications cable off the island's coast, an incident that has raised alarm bells on the island.

A Chinese-owned cargo ship suspected of damaging a subsea telecoms cable off Taiwan has stopped transmitting its location on the high seas, Taiwan's coast guard said Tuesday.Taiwan has asked South Korean authorities for assistance in the investigation into the ship after rough seas prevented them boarding the vessel near northern Taiwan,

The Chinese director of a firm whose vessel Taiwan suspects of having damaged an undersea communications cable said on Wednesday there was no evidence the ship was involved, an incident that has alarmed the government in Taipei.

The Coast Guard Administration on Tuesday said that the crew of a freighter suspected of cutting a subsea cable was Chinese and the vessel was registered with two names in two countries. The CGA's Ocean Affairs Council said it convened an inter-agency coordination meeting to strengthen monitoring and enforcement mechanisms for undersea cables.

Taiwan suspects China of being behind damage to a crucial subsea communications cable just off its northern coast, which occurred last week.