When a Taiwanese telecoms company detected that an international undersea cable was damaged earlier this month, it worked to divert internet traffic from the broken line to keep customers on the island connected.

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.

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 incident raises concern China will try to cut all undersea cables to Taiwan in the event of a military invasion, so Taiwan is racing to develop a satellite-based internet service.

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 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.

On Wednesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office dismissed the accusations, claiming undersea cable damage is part of common maritime accidents. It claimed Taiwan was making baseless accusations against China and exaggerating “so-called grey zone threats.”

A Taiwanese freighter is accused of deliberately dragging its anchor to cut an internet cable directly linking Taiwan to the U.S. East Coast.

BEIJING - China on Jan 8 accused Taiwan’s ruling party of having “deliberately hyped” an incident in which a Chinese-owned ship was suspected of damaging a subsea telecoms cable.