TPKM3 - Cable Damage

In the early hours of 25 February 2025, Taiwan's state-run Chunghwa Telecom reported to authorities that its Taiwan–Penghu No. 3 (TPKM3) submarine fibre-optic cable, which links Taiwan's main island to the outlying Penghu archipelago, had been severed. According to Focus Taiwan, citing the Coast Guard Administration, a Togolese-registered freighter named Hong Tai had been loitering in the area near the cable, off the southwestern coast of Taiwan, since 22 February before its anchor was dropped.

The Coast Guard Administration said it dispatched a patrol vessel at around 2:30 a.m. on 25 February to monitor the Hong Tai, which was anchored roughly six nautical miles northwest of Jiangjun Fishing Port in Tainan. After the vessel did not respond to repeated radio broadcasts ordering it to leave, coast guard personnel boarded the ship and detained its crew, which the coast guard described as eight Chinese nationals. The Hong Tai was escorted into port in the Tainan area for investigation by prosecutors.

Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs ordered Chunghwa Telecom to reroute Penghu's voice and internet traffic to alternative undersea cables, and officials said services were maintained without major disruption, as reported by CNN. Authorities opened a national-security-level investigation into whether the cable break was deliberate or accidental.

The Coast Guard Administration stated it could not rule out that the incident was a Chinese gray-zone intrusion, a coercive act falling below the threshold of war, while cautioning that whether the break was intentional sabotage or accidental remained to be clarified. At the time of the detention, a China-state link was suspected rather than proven; the Hong Tai was a flag-of-convenience vessel reported to have Chinese financing. The case fits a broader pattern Taiwan has attributed to Beijing's gray-zone pressure, though the detained ship and crew were suspects pending the investigation's outcome.