There are Chinese patents on "A Drag-Type Submarine Cable Cutting Device and Its Cable Cutting Method" and "A Deep-Sea Optical Cable Submarine Shearing and Salvaging Device"<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Wing_Kong_Exchange/comments/1h8es3w/chinas_patent_for_cutting_undersea_cables/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Wing_Kong_Exchange/comments/1h8es3w...</a>
Can anyone with any maritime knowledge answer:<p>1) How easy would it be to deliberately time an anchor drop to damage a cable?<p>2) Why would a ship drop anchor outside a port? Is this a malfunction that happens a lot, or is it rare/unheard of?<p>Taiwan is under constant pressure from China, a lot of it incredibly petty, so there's a motive for a deliberate cable cut. But I'm unsure of the viability of using a rusty civilian ship to do this.<p>EDIT: and which cable was it? The nearest to Keelung is the ACPN-2 branch linking Tamsui, Taiwan to Shantou, China.<p>EDIT2: read the article more carefully, it was this one:<p><a href="https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/trans-pacific-express-tpe-cable-system" rel="nofollow">https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/trans-paci...</a><p>quite far north of keelung to drop anchor, but as aforementioned I am ignorant of maritime operations.