The cables that carry Taiwan’s internet traffic run along the seafloor, mostly invisible, largely undefended, and increasingly targeted. Since 2023, a sustained pattern of sabotage — carried out by Chinese-linked vessels operating under flags of convenience and falsified identities — has emerged as one of Beijing’s sharpest tools of gray-zone pressure. The plausible deniability is deliberate. So is the damage.

A Documented Pattern, Not a Coincidence

In early 2023, Chinese-registered vessels severed two undersea cables linking Taiwan’s Matsu Islands to the main island, cutting internet access for roughly 13,000 residents for nearly two months. It was framed as an accident. The pattern since has made that framing implausible.