While Chunghwa Telecom has not said which cable was damaged, the Taiwanese giant co-owns the Trans-Pacific Express, a nearly 11,000-mile undersea system that connects Taiwan with China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

Companies from all of those places share ownership of the cables.

“We’re looking at a shared infrastructure, shared risk situation, because Taiwan and China are part of the same networks. And this fact should not be overlooked,” said Cynthia Mehboob, who studies undersea cables in the Indo-Pacific at the Australian National University.

All seven crew members aboard the freighter were Chinese nationals, the Taiwan coast guard said. It said the ship was owned by a Hong Kong company called Jie Yang Trading, which according to public records was incorporated in 2020.

Its Chinese-national director, Guo Wenjie, denied that his ship was responsible for the damage, saying “there’s no evidence at all.”

“I spoke to the ship captain and for us it was a normal trip,” he told Reuters.

NBC News was unable to reach Guo.

Taiwan’s suspicion toward Beijing stems in part from a 2023 incident in which the 14,000 people who live on the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands, which sit close to the Chinese mainland, were disconnected from the internet after two undersea cables connecting the islands were cut.

At the time, authorities said a Chinese fishing vessel and freighter had damaged the cables, but said there was no evidence that it was deliberate.

The same year, another Chinese ship called NewNew Polar Bear damaged a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland. It took months for Beijing to admit that its ship was responsible, saying it was an accident.

“What this has done in recent years is expose the vulnerability of these cables that have been out of sight, out of mind,” Parr said.
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