According to Taiwanese authorities, on Feb. 2, a Chinese fishing boat damaged an undersea communications cable that connects Taiwan’s main island to Matsu Islands. About one week later, a Chinese cargo ship severed another cable.
Located approximately 30 miles off the coast of China, the tiny island of Dongyin has quickly established a backup communication system, as reported by the WSJ. The new system uses a high-powered microwave radio to transmit data to Taipei. WSJ described the disruption as a “wartime scenario” and “in a potential preview of a Chinese attack.”
Taiwan has a network of fourteen undersea fiber-optic cables, some buried as shallow as 6 feet below the seabed. These cables are critical as they provide 95% of the island’s data-and-voice traffic.
If you’re curious to delve deeper into the topic, read more about it here.