Chinese ship cuts internet on Taiwan’s remote islands

Last month, B&B owner Chen Yu-lin had to tell guests that they were unable to provide internet.

Others on Matsu, one of Taiwan’s remote islands near neighboring China, have had to struggle to pay their electricity bills, make doctor’s appointments and receive packages.

Matsu’s 14,000 inhabitants rely on two undersea internet cables leading to mainland Taiwan to connect to the outside world.the first cable Chinese A fishing vessel about 50 kilometers (31 miles) at sea. Six days later, on Feb. 8, a Chinese freighter cut her second ship, according to Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest service provider and cable owner.

Meanwhile, islanders were forced to connect to the limited internet via microwave radio transmission, a more mature technology, as a backup. It means that the call has been dropped and the video is no longer available.

“Many tourists cancel their reservations because there is no internet. Today the internet plays a very big role in people’s lives,” said North Chen, who lives in a pole, said.

In addition to disrupting people’s lives, the seemingly harmless loss of internet cables has a significant impact on national security.

As the full-scale invasion of Ukraine showed, Russia has made the elimination of Internet infrastructure a key part of its strategy. Some experts suspect China deliberately cut the cables as part of its harassment of the autonomous islands it considers part of its territory, and will use force to reunify them if necessary. I hope that

China regularly sends fighter jets and naval vessels to Taiwan as part of its tactics to intimidate Taiwan’s democratic government. Since the war in Ukraine, concerns about Chinese aggression and Taiwan’s readiness to counter it have increased.

According to Chunghwa Telecom, the cable has been cut a total of 27 times over the past five years.

Taiwan’s Coast Guard tracked down the fishing vessel that cut the first cable on February 2, according to a person briefed on the incident and not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. returned to Chinese waters.

So far, the Taiwanese government has not directly criticized Beijing.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that China deliberately destroyed these,” said Su Zuyun, a defense expert at the National Institute for Defense and Security, a government think tank. He cited research that said he had the ability. do this “Taiwan should invest more resources in cable repair and protection.”

Internet cables, 20 to 30 millimeters (0.79 to 1.18 inches) wide, are encased in steel armor in shallow waters where they are likely to hit ships. Despite being protected, the cable can be cut very easily by ships and their anchors, or by fishing vessels using steel nets.

Still, “breaks of this level are highly unusual for a cable, even in the shallow waters of the Taiwan Strait,” said Jeff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia-Pacific Network Information Center. Region IP address.

Without stable internet, coffee shop owner Chiu Sih-chi said that her infant son’s cold had made it difficult for her to go to the hospital.

The breakfast shop owner says he’s lost thousands of dollars in the past few weeks because he usually orders online. Her customers came to her stall expecting her food to be ready when she hadn’t seen their message.

Faced with extraordinary hardships, the residents of Matsu have come up with all sorts of ways to organize their lives.

One couple planned to stay in Taiwan to access the reservation system and pass the information on to the other via text message in order to cope with the upcoming peak season. Her wife Lin Hsian-wen extended her vacation in Taiwan during the off-season when she heard the internet in her hometown was not working, and she returned to Matsu later in the week.

Some enterprising residents have crossed the coast to buy SIM cards from Chinese telecommunications companies, but they only work well near China’s coast.

Bed and breakfast owner Tsao Li-yu and others went to Chunghwa Telecom’s offices and used Wi-Fi hotspots set up by the company for locals to use.

“I was going to work for (Chunghwa Telecom),” Cao joked.

The Republic of China had set up microwave transmissions as a backup for its residents.Broadcast from Yangmingshan, just outside Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, the relay sends a signal to Matsu, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) away. Residents say the speed has increased noticeably since Sunday.

Mr. Wang Chun Ming, the mayor of Lianjiang County, said that the official name of the Matsu Islands is Matsu Island, and he and the Matsu lawmakers went to Taipei to seek help immediately after the Internet broke down. said they were told that priority would be given to backup plan.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has publicly solicited bids from low-Earth-orbit satellite operators to provide internet in backup plans after seeing Russian cyberattacks in the Ukraine invasion, said the ministry’s director general, Audrey. But plans remain stalled because Taiwanese law requires providers to be at least 51% owned by domestic shareholders, Tan told The Washington Post last fall.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Digital sent questions to the National Communications Commission regarding the progress of the backup plan. The NCC said it would install a monitoring system for the submarine cable, relying on microwave transmission as a backup option.

Many Pacific island nations relied on satellites as a backup before they started using internet cables, and some still do, says Jonathan Brewer, a New Zealand telecommunications consultant who works in the Asia-Pacific region. says Mr.

There is also the issue of cost. Cable repairs are expensive, with early estimates putting him at NT$30 million ($1 million) for work on the ship alone.

“Chinese ships that damage cables will be held accountable and will have to pay high repair costs,” said Wen Li, head of the Matsu branch of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Wang, the mayor of Lianjiang County, said he mentioned the telegram when he met with China Mobile executives during a recent visit to China. They offered to send a technician to help. But compensation would have to provide hard evidence of who did it, he said.

China’s Taiwan office did not respond to a fax request for comment.

For now, residents can only wait. Due to the limited number of cable-laying ships, the earliest a cable-laying ship will come is April 20th.

In the months when the Internet does not work, there are also advantages. The owner of the bed and breakfast, Mr. Chen He Yuling, feels more at peace than before.

The first week was tough, but Chen got used to it quickly. “From a life point of view, I feel much more comfortable because I get less phone calls,” he said, adding that he was spending more time with his son, who usually plays games online.

A web cafe with off-duty soldiers playing offline games had the same effect.

“Our relationship has become a little closer,” said one soldier, who only named Samuel.

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Associated Press video journalist Taijing Wu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.

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For AP’s Asia Pacific coverage, please visit https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific.