Questions raised over Chinese ship seen near undersea Baltic cables

Questions have been raised over the activities of a Chinese ship currently in the company of a Danish naval patrol vessel after being spotted near two undersea internet cables that were cut in the Baltic Sea on Sunday and Monday.

The Ningbo-registered Yi Peng 3 is currently anchored in a Kattegat, an area of sea off Denmark known informally as “NATO Lake,” in close proximity to a Danish naval patrol vessel, according to MarineTraffic.com.

Close by is the Danish naval patrol vessel P525, a military operations vessel under the flag of Denmark, according to an update from the site at 1300 GMT on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a second Danish Navy ship, the “HDMS Søløven”, which supports divers in naval operations, was also anchored nearby overnight on Wednesday, media reports cited the website Vesselfinder as saying.

While officials have declined to clarify whether the ship has been detained or searched, the apparent delay in its voyage comes after social media users spotted it slightly slowing down and altering course as it crossed the 730-mile C-Lion 1 undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany and the 130-mile link between Sweden and Lithuania on Monday, around the time that they were cut.

Several media reports said the authorities are currently investigating the ship’s activities.

Authorities in Sweden and Finland are investigating the suspected sabotage of two undersea fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea, with attention focusing on a Chinese-registered cargo ship, the Yi Peng 3, EUToday reported on Wednesday.

“The vessel, which passed close to the damaged cables during the time of the incidents, is now under surveillance by the Danish navy,” the report said.

Marine Insight said the Danish navy had confirmed that it is closely monitoring the ship, but declined to comment on its potential link to the damaged cables.

“The Swedes are taking a close look at this Chinese ship,” the Financial Times quoted an unnamed source familiar with the Swedish investigations as saying on Tuesday evening.

Previous incidents

This isn’t the first time questions have been asked about the activities of Chinese vessels around international marine infrastructure.

In May 2023, Palau said a Chinese vessel had slowed over an undersea cable during an incursion into its waters, while Finland investigated a Chinese-owned, Hong Kong-registered vessel after an undersea natural gas pipeline was damaged in October of the same year.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain on Tuesday accused Russia of “escalating hybrid activities against NATO and EU countries [that are] unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risks,” following the cutting of the undersea cables, although they didn’t mention them directly.

But Germany and other nations have said the damage was likely an act of sabotage.

“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “We also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned that Warsaw would shut down Russian consulates in Poland if the “acts of sabotage in Europe” didn’t stop.

U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington is “incredibly concerned” about the possibility of hostile Russian actions in Europe.

“Speaking generally ... we are incredibly concerned about hybrid warfare conducted by Russia both in Europe and around the world,” he told a Nov. 19 news briefing. “It’s something that we have been in close coordination with our European allies and our other allies and partners around the world and we have made clear on a number of occasions to Russia that it would be held accountable for.”

“When it comes to this specific incident, we’ve seen these reports. It is our understanding that a number of the countries in question have announced investigations into the matter, and we’ll of course await for the outcome of those investigations before speaking to them specifically,” he said.

South China Sea confrontations

Public records indicate that the Yi Peng 3 is a bulk carrier registered in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo and owned by the Ningbo Yipeng Shipping Co headquartered in the city’s Zhenhai district.

The company, which owns two vessels registered in August 2016, has said it has received a request to cooperate with an investigation but gave no further details.

Its founder Chen Jianjun is listed as an officer of several other companies, including the Fujian Yipeng Shipping Co. and the Global Oriental International Contain (Qidong) Co.

Germany-based China commentator Wu Wenxin said Chinese commercial vessels have gotten involved in quasi-military standoffs before, citing confrontations in the South China Sea.

“For example, Chinese fishing vessels frequently provoke the Philippines in the South China Sea, but they’re clearly part of the Chinese Communist Party’s navy,” Wu said. “I think the exact same thing is now happening in the Baltic.”

Wu, who has also lived in Sweden for many years, said Scandinavian countries have been “naive” about the transnational activities of the Chinese Communist Party."

“Looks like they’ve been forced to learn the hard way,” he said. “Now they’ll be more vigilant as a result of this incident.”

Germany-based China commentator Cheng Shiguang said Chinese vessels have been implicated in damage to undersea cables near democratic Taiwan.

“This hooligan behavior by the Chinese Communist Party may be news to the international community, but it’s not in Taiwan, a country that has been fighting them for more than 70 years,” Cheng said. “Taiwan has two outer islands, Kinmen and Matsu, which have cable connections with Taiwan, and they’ve had this experience too.”

“Russia has joined forces with North Korea, Iran, and China to win its war of aggression against Ukraine,” Cheng said. “North Korea has sent troops to participate, and the Chinese Communist Party is creating chaos.”

“All countries in the world should see this for what it is, and boycott them collectively,” he said.

2023 pipeline damage

Regarding this incident, neither the Chinese Embassy in Sweden nor the Political Information Office of the Chinese Embassy in Finland responded to requests for comment when contacted by RFA Cantonese on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that he was “not aware of the relevant situation.”

“China has always required Chinese ships to strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations and attaches great importance to protecting the safety of undersea infrastructure,” Lin said.

In October 2023, Finnish authorities announced they would investigate the Chinese-owned and Hong Kong-registered cargo vessel NewNew Polar Bear amid claims it may have damaged a natural gas pipeline, and China said it was ready to assist the probe.

According to Finnish police, the Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia was likely damaged by an anchor as “on the seabed, a 1.5 to 4 meter-wide dragging trail is seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline.”

The investigators said they found the anchor just a few meters from the gas pipeline damage point. They said the anchor may have belonged to the Chinese container vessel Newnew Polar Bear which was sailing through the area at around 1:20 a.m. local time on Oct. 8, 2023, when the pipeline was reported damaged.

The police focused their suspicion on the ship as until now, they “could not visually confirm that both front anchors of the vessel were in their place.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

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