A Chinese ship is suspected of sabotaging undersea cables

A Chinese commercial ship accused of sabotaging underwater telecommunications lines in the Baltic Sea has been surrounded by NATO warships for more than a week, according to reports. Investigators are probing whether the captain acted at the behest of Russian intelligence when he released the anchor and dragged it more than 100 miles across the seafloor.


The incident began Nov. 17, when the dragging anchor cut a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden, followed by the severing of a cable connecting Finland and Germany early the next morning. Reports suggest the ship's transponders—which log its activity into an automated, aggregated database—went dark during the same time frame. Under international maritime law, NATO cannot force the ship into one of its ports, but sources say forces have been negotiating with the ship's captain to board the vessel and talk to the crew.