Attacks on underwater cables running through strategically significant bodies of water in both the Baltic Sea and the South China Sea by Russia and China, respectively, in recent months has top officials concerned they are not “mere coincidence.”
Maritime sabotage efforts in both regions of the world appear to have been on the rise over the last several years, with a notable spike in recent months after at least three separate attacks occurred in as many months, beginning in November, and the top suspects are Russia and China.
“The Kremlin has been running a hybrid campaign against Europe for years, ranging from spreading disinformation and cyberattacks to weaponizing energy supplies. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these efforts have intensified dramatically,” EU High Representative Kaja Kallas told Fox News Digital. “However, Russia is not the only challenge we face.”
Kaja Kallas (Nicolas Landemard/Anadolu via Getty Images/File)
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In November, two cables under the Baltic Sea were severed, and a Chinese-flagged commercial ship dubbed the Yi Peng 3 was stopped by Danish naval forces and made to anchor at sea while international authorities began investigating the incident.
The Chinese ship, which is reported to have left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, was discovered to have dragged its anchor for over 100 miles along the Baltic seabed, cutting an undersea cable that connected Sweden and Lithuania on Nov. 17 as well as the only communication cable connecting Finland with Germany on the 18th.
The incident rang eerily similar to an October 2023 event in which a Chinese ship dubbed the NewNew Polar Bear, was found to have dragged anchor, again, over 100 miles in the Gulf of Finland and damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline as well as two telecommunications cables between Sweden and Estonia.
The Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is anchored in the sea of Kattegat near Grenaa, Denmark, on Nov. 20, 2024. (MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
The damage to the pipeline reminded the Western world of the vulnerability of its subsea infrastructure just one year after the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines had been significantly damaged.
By Oct. 22, 2023, the Chinese ship was reported to have docked in the Russian port of Arkhangelsk with its port side anchor missing.
This time, European leaders were quick to voice their suspicions that the November attack was an act of sabotage, and former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis pointed out the likeness between the two attacks in an X post that said, “If I had a nickel for every time a Chinese ship was dragging its anchor on the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the vicinity of important cables I would have two nickels, which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
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While Beijing has denied any intentional wrongdoing in either incident, targeting international undersea cables is not a new tactic for China to employ.
Taiwan last week began investigating whether a China-linked ship was responsible for intentionally damaging one of its cables that connect the island with the internet, and Taipei has taken steps to increase its low-orbit satellite network in a move to circumvent future attempts by Beijing to cut it off from the international community by targeting its fiber-optic cables.
A damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline that connects Finland and Estonia is pictured in this undated handout picture in the Baltic Sea. (Finnish Border Guard/Handout via REUTERS )
But the tactics China has long employed against Taiwan are now being optimized in the Baltic Sea. The U.S. Defense Department has been warning of China’s plans to invade and annex the neighboring island nation by 2027.
“Chinese vessels have now been implicated in the recent damage to Baltic Sea cables, something we have seen in [the] Taiwan strait for years,” the EU’s top diplomat told Fox News Digital. “Considering China’s vast support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, it is difficult to view these incidents as mere coincidences.
“China is closely monitoring our response to Russia’s war. The U.S. must be strong on Russia to prevent trouble with China,” Kallas warned. “Supporting Ukraine today helps keep American forces out of future conflicts.”
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But China isn’t the only country suspected of sabotaging international undersea cables.
A vessel accused of being tied to Russia has been seized by Finland, which is investigating a suspected attack that damaged four telecommunications and the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power cables on Christmas Day by, again, dragging its anchor across the seabed.
A Finnish tugboat is seen near the oil tanker Eagle S off the Porkkalanniemi peninsula in the Gulf of Finland on Dec. 28, 2024. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva/via REUTERS )
The tanker dubbed Eagle S is suspected of being used by Moscow under a scheme known as “shadow fleet” which relies on dated vessels under dubious ownership to help Russia skirt sanctions and keep up its oil exports to help finance its war in Ukraine.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House responded to Fox News Digital’s questions about whether the recent attacks in both regions of the world are connected. But security experts have signaled that in international politics there is little room for “coincidence.”
“Despite the lack of public information clearly proving Chinese and Russian coordination and collusion, I don’t believe in coincidence in international affairs,” former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heino Klinck told Fox News Digital. “Both malign actors thrive in the gray zone, and these attacks seem to be mutually reinforcing and mutually inspiring as they demonstrate the ineffectual international response to date.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a reception of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 23, 2024. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS)
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NATO on Tuesday will announce a new defensive strategy titled “Baltic Sentry” that will involve the deployment of more ships, a naval drone fleet and the use of AI to better detect, deter and respond to attacks or acts of sabotage in the Baltic Sea, a NATO spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
NATO did not respond to questions about whether the alliance assesses the recent maritime sabotage to be a coordinated operation between Russia and China, though a Western security official familiar with the intelligence on the attacks said these are not believed to be incidents of opportunity.
“It seems to be a bit more coordinated than one could initially think,” said the security official, who spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity. “It’s not just that somebody throws the anchor, and then they see what happens. This is a bit more planned and a bit more coordinated.”
