NATO members said they reserved the right to take action

The damage from the Jan. 3 incident did not disrupt communications in Taiwan, as the data was routed to other cables.

However, “if enough cables were cut you can potentially cause something as severe as an internet blackout,” said Ian Li Huiyuan, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Especially for Taiwan’s case, since it’s an island and there’s no overland alternatives.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said last week that undersea cables were damaged by “common maritime accidents” and that Taiwan was making accusations “out of thin air” and intentionally hyping up the “so-called gray zone threat,” according to Reuters.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which makes China policy, responded that the investigation would proceed based on the evidence.

It said Chinese “flag-of-convenience” ships “have a bad reputation in the international community,” pointing to similar cases in Baltic states that are suspected to involve Chinese vessels.

The race to protect cables
It can be difficult to determine whether a cable was damaged by accident or deliberately, but heightened geopolitical tensions have raised suspicions that damage to some critical infrastructure may be sabotage.

Estonia said last month that it would deploy naval assets to protect cables connecting it with Finland after its Estlink 2 cable was damaged on Christmas Day. Finland is investigating a Russian oil tanker that was seized after the incident and may have been dragging its anchor along the seabed.

“Three cases in one year cannot be a coincidence,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said last month.

NATO is also deploying at least two ships to the Baltic Sea area for surveillance.

While the alliance’s heightened alert mostly involves Russia’s “shadow fleet” of smuggling ships, Chinese-owned vessels have come under suspicion as well, including in November when one freighter was detained for weeks in Danish waters after two fiber-optic cables were damaged.