Undersea cable cuts near Taiwan and in the Baltic point to a repeating sabotage pattern
The internet for 1,500 people on a Taiwanese island went dark for the third time in four years. In April the Matsu No. 3 cable was cut again. Analysts say most of these cuts come from vessels dragging anchors, a method built for deniability. The same pattern is showing up in the
Almost all of the world's internet traffic travels through cables lying on the seabed, and those cables are being severed with a regularity that is hard to dismiss as coincidence. In April 2026, the No. 3 cable connecting Beigan and Dongyin in Taiwan's Matsu islands was cut for the third time in four years. About 1,500 residents of Dongyin Township kept only reduced mobile, voice and data service. Analysts who study these incidents point to a consistent method. Rather than sophisticated sabotage, most alleged cuts come from a vessel dragging its anchor across the line. It is cheap, effective and leaves enough ambiguity for the crew to claim an accident. The same signature is appearing far from Taiwan. In the Baltic Sea, China-flagged and Russia-flagged vessels have been linked to cable damage, and in nearly every case the crews have insisted the damage was unintentional. A 2020 filing by Lishui University even described a dragging type submarine cable cutting device, although there is no confirmed evidence that such a tool has been deployed. The result is a form of pressure that is difficult to attribute and even harder to deter. Sources: The Diplomat / Atlantic Council / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists