Chinese Ship May Have Tried to Sabotage Undersea Cables Before: Report

What’s New

The Yi Peng 3, the Chinese cargo ship suspected of damaging undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea last month, may have attempted to sabotage them 10 days before, reports suggest.

Underwater footage and Danish broadcaster TV2 analyzed underwater footage and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and found that the vessel performed a suspicious maneuver near the Danish island of Læsø, on November 7.

Newsweek has contacted Læsø’s municipality, the Danish navy, the Chinese embassy in Washington, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via email, for comment.

Why It Matters

The Yi Peng 3 is currently anchored in the Kattegat, surrounded by Danish, Swedish, and German naval vessels, while it is under investigation for the damage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, which disrupted communications between several European countries.

China, whose ship has been accused of deliberately severing the cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed for 100 miles, has denied responsibility for the act, which would escalate geopolitical tensions between Russia, NATO and China.

The two cables that were damaged are the Arelion cable, which links Sweden to Lithuania, and the C-Lion1 cable, which links Finland to Germany.

What To Know

The new AIS data shows that the Yi Peng 3, which was traveling from Port Said in Egypt to Ust-Luga in Russia, slowed down as it passed over two power cables off Læsø and then came to a complete stop.

It stayed like this for about five minutes before the propellers were turned on again and the ship continued south through the Kattegat.

This was the only time throughout the whole voyage that the ship performed a maneuver like this, the data shows.

What People Are Saying

A former ship captain and current defense analyst at Nordic Defense Analysis told TV2: “I find it suspicious that a merchant ship—which is in principle in transit from one port to another—behaves in that way. A merchant ship would not normally do that.”

Defense analyst Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen said: “You can see from the AIS traces that the 225-meter-long [738-foot-long] ship has not been in an evasive maneuver in relation to another ship. It is therefore suspicious that the speed is reduced just above or after the cables.”

What Happens Next

Sweden, Finland and Lithuania are investigating the incident in which the undersea cables were sabotaged on November 17.

Stockholm has sent a formal request to China, asking that Beijing cooperate with its probe. The Chinese responded saying they are ready to “uncover the truth.”

Newsweek has contacted the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, which handles critical infrastructure and national security, and the Swedish Ministry of Defense, via email, to ask whether this report will influence its investigation.