Chinese vessels are suspected of cutting undersea internet cables connecting Matsu, one of Taiwan's outlying islands closer to neighbouring China.
A Taiwanese anti-air missile base with missile launchers seen on the left aimed towards mainland China's Fuzhou city's coast line in the background is seen from a hill top in Nangan, part of Matsu Islands, Taiwan on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. In the past month, bed and breakfast owner Chen Yu-lin had to tell his guests he couldn't provide them with the internet.
The islanders in the meantime were forced to hook up to a limited internet via microwave radio transmission, a more mature technology, as backup. It means one could wait hours to send a text. Calls would drop, and videos were unwatchable. China regularly sends warplanes and navy ships toward Taiwan as part of tactics to intimidate the island's democratic government. Concerns about China's invasion, and Taiwan's preparedness to withstand it, have increased since the war in Ukraine.
Internet cables, which can be anywhere between 20 millimetres to 30 millimetres wide, are encased in steel armor in shallow waters where they're more likely to run into ships. Despite the protection, cables can get cut quite easily by ships and their anchors, or fishing boats using steel nets. Faced with unusual difficulties, Matsu residents came up with all sorts of ways to organize their lives.
Wang Chung Ming, the head of Lienchiang County, as the Matsu islands are officially called, said he and the legislator from Matsu went to Taipei shortly after the internet broke down to ask for help, and was told they would get priority in any future internet backup plans.
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