BAO SHUN

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Fears ship linked to China is involved in undersea cable sabotage

The 'Bao Shun' that was previously driven away by the Coast Guard has again been detected off Taiwan's coast amid concerns about undersea cable sabotage. The ship crossed the median line from waters off Guangzhou Province's Shantou into waters southwest of Taiwan on Jan. 30. It remained within Taiwan’s restricted waters between Hengchun and Tainan, passing over the submarine cables near Pingtung County's Fangshan Township, as well as off the coasts of the Port of Kaohsiung, Zuoying Naval Base, and the Port of Anping from Feb 5 to 6. On Feb 7 the 'Bao Shun' was near Taiwan's coast and Penghu County's Qimei Island. On Jan 6 the 'Bao Shun' has been spotted taking an erratic course over subsea cables off north Taiwan, prompting the Coast Guard to drive the vessel away. The ship then moved north of Pengjia Islet and in and out of Taiwan 12 miles territorial waters in a southwest-northeast direction for five days. Records of the ship's movements around Taiwan first appeared on Feb. 27, 2023. Snce March 1, 2023, the 'Bao Shun' has visited the Port of Kaohsiung 50 times, but never visited another port until it was driven away in January. It was not until Jan 27 that the 'Bao Shun' called at a port in Hong Kong, where it stayed for just 72 minutes. The 'Bao Shun' again returned to Taiwan's southwest coast on Feb. 1, while over 136 days the AIS data were missing. The 'Bao Shun's owner and operator, the Hong Kong based Changhang Shipping, has just this one cargo ship that seems to go nowhere and transport nothing. The 'Bao Shun' had 28 encounters at sea, 15 of which were with its constant companion, the Mongolia-flagged and Hong Kong-registered m/v 'Smoothly', which has exclusively operated out of Taiwan ports until recently.

Taiwan boarded first ship as It lists dangerous Chinese vessels

After Taiwan’s Coast Guard started moving forward with its effort to monitor and inspect potentially dangerous vessels following an incident in which an undersea cable was damaged, the first vessel to be boarded was the 'Bao Shun'. While the inspection did not find invalid documents, contraband cargo, or equipment for cutting cables, the vessel has been lingering for two months off Taiwan. The vessel was instructed to leave the Taiwanese waters.