There are strange things going on at the bottom of the sea. Once again, the two fiberoptic cables connecting Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, which lie just 10 nautical miles off China’s coast, to the outside world have been severed. The same thing happened in February 2023, when two Chinese merchant vessels cut the two cables, which run from the islands to the rest of Taiwan. The cut set the islands back to a pre-internet age.
This time, it’s less clear what caused the cables to be severed—and this time, the islands were ready. Thanks to microwave and satellite backup systems, the 12,000 or so residents have mostly been unaffected by the cable cuts. Other countries can learn from Matsu’s experience.
There are strange things going on at the bottom of the sea. Once again, the two fiberoptic cables connecting Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, which lie just 10 nautical miles off China’s coast, to the outside world have been severed. The same thing happened in February 2023, when two Chinese merchant vessels cut the two cables, which run from the islands to the rest of Taiwan. The cut set the islands back to a pre-internet age.
This time, it’s less clear what caused the cables to be severed—and this time, the islands were ready. Thanks to microwave and satellite backup systems, the 12,000 or so residents have mostly been unaffected by the cable cuts. Other countries can learn from Matsu’s experience.
The cut, announced by Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs on Jan. 22, was a case a déjà vu. In early February 2023, Matsu Islanders woke up one day to hear that one of the cables had been cut. That meant a bit slower digital traffic, but they could handle it. Then, a few days later, everything went down, and Matsu residents didn’t need to see the news to know that the second cable had gone.
Because digital connectivity powers virtually every aspect of modern life (from smartphones to payment systems), daily life on the Matsu Islands ground to a standstill. People could still go to their offices, but they couldn’t do very much apart from typing documents and sending excruciatingly slow text messages.
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest telecommunication operator, which covers the islands, quickly set up Wi-Fi satellite hot spots in its stores there; they became go-to places for people trying to get essential business done. In the evenings, after the stores closed, islanders would gather outside the store windows and connect to Wi-Fi—nocturnal entertainment of a most surreal kind.
Since cable repair ships are much in demand, and there are only a few dozen of them worldwide, the islands faced months of offline life, but thanks to repeated pleas with cable repair companies (and one imagines references to the islanders’ sudden isolation), the Taiwanese authorities managed to get a cable repair ship to attend to the cables within weeks.
Still, the cable cuts were a scare and a sign of the pressure that China might bring to bear in the future: The first cable was cut by a Chinese fishing vessel, the second by a Chinese freighter. It’s almost impossible to prove that a ship has intentionally damaged an undersea cable—and that gives bad government actors plenty of cover. The Matsu cables had been damaged, though not severed, by Chinese-owned vessels and sand dredgers many times before, and these frequent “accidents” don’t seem to have encouraged others to be more cautious. The islands are on the front line of Taipei and Beijing’s long-standing faceoff and were a frequent target of shelling during the Cold War.
Then, in early January, Chunghwa Telecom reported suspicious damage to one of its cables. Taiwan’s coast guard briefly detained a suspect, the Cameroon-flagged, Chinese-owned Shunxing39, but had to disembark due to stormy weather—whereupon the Shunxing39 quickly sailed away.
And now, the two Matsu cables have been cut again. A suspect has not been identified; on the contrary, the government said the damage is likely to have been caused by “natural degradation.” That raises the question of how two cables could experience paralyzing natural degradation virtually simultaneously—but even if Taiwanese authorities were to identify potential culprits in this or future cable cuts, they’re likely to sail away just as the Shunxing39 and the February 2023 suspects did.
This time, however, the Matsu Islanders have been spared a return to the world circa 1985. “The Ministry of Digital Affairs … has requested Chunghwa Telecom to activate backup measures in accordance with its critical infrastructure security protection plan to provide sufficient microwave bandwidth,” Taiwan Public Television reported.
In the almost two years since the first cable cuts, Chunghwa and the government of Taiwan have been busy installing backup microwave and satellite connectivity. As a result, instead of having to gather outside Chunghwa stores, islanders can now access microwave-powered internet at a bandwidth of 12.6 gigabits per second—theoretically higher than the islands’ daily traffic peak of 9.5 Gbps.
But just in case, Taiwan Public Television reported, priority has been given “to key infrastructure communication services such as governments, banks, and hospitals to ensure uninterrupted services related to people’s livelihood.” The government has also reassured Matsu Islanders that they’ll be able to continue to use credit cards and make online payments and that they’ll be able to make cash withdrawals during the Spring Festival holiday. It has also launched nine satellite sites as a backup to the backup. There are already complaints that the system is slow—but it’s better than the alternative.
The Matsu Islands are a tiny part of the world. But in our discombobulating decade, they’re playing a crucial role as the world’s cable-cut laboratory. In February 2023, the islanders lived through an experience that other regions and countries could soon face, and that means other regions and countries now know what a complete cable disconnection looks like. They can also learn from the way the islands—assisted by the central government and Chunghwa—have since massively boosted their resilience to cable cuts. The fact that the islanders will be able to celebrate the Spring Festival on Jan. 29 without having to worry about access to cash sends a strong message to anyone wishing to harm further Taiwanese cables.
Yes, such backup systems are costly, both for telecom providers and governments and by extension for ordinary citizens. But they’re less expensive than a total blackout—and they show a commitment to resilience that reassures the public. The Matsu Islanders can watch suspect vessels come and go and not have to worry what they might get up to (though their activities clearly remain a massive headache for undersea cable owners and insurers). That’s what the rest of the world should aim for.
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