China probe finds Taiwanese men controlled ship that cut undersea cables

Chinese officials claim Taiwanese smugglers are to blame for February incident Taipei says was an act of hybrid warfare.Published On 24 Dec 2025China has accused two Taiwanese nationals of leading a smuggling ‍operation involving a ‍Chinese-crewed vessel that damaged subsea cables in February, in an incident that has stoked tensions between the countries.The public security bureau in Weihai, in China’s eastern Shandong province, said on Wednesday that a probe into the incident showed that two Taiwanese men had been operating the ship involved – the Togo-registered Hong Tai 58 – as part of a longstanding operation smuggling frozen goods into China.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3As undersea cables break off Europe and Taiwan, proving sabotage is toughlist 2 of 3US approves $11bn in arms sales to Taiwan in deal likely to anger Chinalist 3 of 3Taiwan charges captain of China-linked ship with damaging subsea cableend of listIn comments carried in Chinese state media, China’s Taiwan-affairs-office" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="6513" data-entity-type="organization">Taiwan Affairs Office ‌accused Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party of falsely claiming that Beijing had used the Hong Tai 58 to deliberately sabotage an undersea cable off the island in a bid “to stir cross-Strait confrontation”.Taiwan has accused Beijing of severing the cable as a so-called “grey zone” or “hybrid warfare” tactic to apply pressure on the self-ruled island of 23 million people, which China views as its territory.The terms refer to low-grade coercive acts such as sabotage that hold a certain degree of plausible deniability.But China has denied its involvement, calling the incident a “common” maritime occurrence that has been “exaggerated” by Taiwanese authorities.In June, a Taiwanese court sentenced the Chinese captain of the Hong Tai 58 to three years in ⁠jail after finding him guilty of intentionally damaging the cables off Taiwan.Seven Chinese crew members were sent back to China without charge, and were interviewed by authorities on the mainland as part of their probe into the incident.