November 20th, 2024

Yi Peng 3 crossed both cables C-Lion 1 and BSC at times matching when they broke

A Chinese-flagged cargo ship, Yi Peng 3, crossed the locations of two broken submarine cables and was monitored by the Danish navy while departing the Baltic Sea for the Danish Straits.

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Yi Peng 3 crossed both cables C-Lion 1 and BSC at times matching when they broke

A Chinese-flagged cargo ship, Yi Peng 3, was observed crossing the locations of two broken submarine cables, C-Lion 1 and BSC, at times that correspond with the incidents. The ship was monitored by the Danish navy for a period during the night and is currently navigating through the Danish Straits, departing from the Baltic Sea. There are no indications of boarding, although there are limitations regarding the accuracy of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.

- The Yi Peng 3 cargo ship is Chinese-flagged.

- The ship crossed the locations of two broken submarine cables.

- It was monitored by the Danish navy during its journey.

- The ship is now leaving the Baltic Sea for the Danish Straits.

- No evidence of boarding has been reported.

AI: What people are saying
The incident involving the Yi Peng 3 cargo ship raises significant concerns and speculation among commenters.
  • Many commenters draw parallels to a previous incident involving another Chinese ship, suggesting a pattern of behavior.
  • There are suspicions regarding the intentions behind the ship's actions, with some suggesting possible sabotage or hybrid warfare.
  • Commenters express the need for thorough investigations to determine if the damage was accidental or intentional.
  • Concerns about the geopolitical implications of such incidents are prevalent, with discussions about potential motivations from various countries.
  • Some suggest that the situation could be a false flag operation aimed at justifying military actions or sanctions.
Link Icon 39 comments
By @nabla9 - 13 days
October 2023 there was similar incident where Chinese cargo ship cut Balticonnector cable and EE-S1 cable. Chip named 'Newnew Polar Bear' under Chinese flag and Chinese company Hainan Xin Xin Yang Shipping Co, Ltd. (aka Torgmoll) with CEO named Yelena V. Maksimova, drags anchor in the seabed cutting cables. Chinese investigation claims storm was the reason, but there was no storm, just normal windy autumn weather. The ship just lowered one anchor and dragged it with engines running long time across the seabed until the anchor broke.

These things happen sometimes, ship anchors sometimes damage cables, but not this often and without serious problems in the ship. Russians are attempting plausible deniability.

By @thecodemonkey - 13 days
The Danish defense forces now confirms their presence but they are not providing any other information right now: https://x.com/forsvaretdk/status/1859195509866381402

(This is also a rare English-language tweet from an account that usually only tweets in Danish)

By @threeseed - 13 days
And 4 days ago a Russian spy ship was escorted out of Irish waters:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/16/russian-spy-sh...

So definitely seems like a coordinated attempt to destabilise Europe ahead of anticipated peace talks early next year.

By @01100011 - 13 days
Title could be a lot more descriptive. Your average reader might scroll on by because that title makes no sense without context.
By @A_D_E_P_T - 13 days
By @Hamuko - 13 days
Yi Peng 3 has been stopped in the Kattegat with Danish navy ships around it for about 11 hours now. Currently HDMS Søløven is anchored right next to it. HDMS Hvidbjørnen was also not too far away before its signal went dark.
By @nickpp - 13 days
Also, Russia is sabotaging European satellites:

https://nltimes.nl/2024/11/15/dutch-childrens-channel-outage...

By @trhway - 13 days
>Last ports: Murmansk - Port Said - Luga Bay (never docked, Ust-Luga, Russia)

All the way to Luga and decided to not dock. Large cargo ship pleasure wandering the sea like a yacht.

By @bobbob1921 - 13 days
What I don’t understand - if the yi peng was intentionally trying to damage the FO cables, why would they not spoof or disable their AIS data/broadcast (ship tracking transponder which is the source of this positioning data we see). Anyone have some insight on that?
By @TinkersW - 13 days
This is the 2nd time China did this in that Baltic isn't it? Both times look intentional.. maybe don't allow Chinese ships in the Baltic?
By @byearthithatius - 13 days
YESS!! Finally a bsky link instead of X. Hope this is how it is from now on.
By @usr1106 - 13 days
Looks suspicious, but there were 4 vessels in the area whose transponder signal was lost by public trackers during that night.

It has also been pointed out that this is a location with lively traffic. So if it turns out that is was an anchor (as in the New New Polar Bear case) that's extra suspicious because anchoring in such location is not normal. On the other hand if it were explosives like in the Nord Stream case, they could have been applied also weeks before.

By @nik_alberta - 13 days
YI PENG 3 (IMO: 9224984) is a Bulk Carrier and is sailing under the flag of China. Her length overall (LOA) is 225 meters and her width is 32.3 meters. Source: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:21...
By @fjfaase - 13 days
It looks like that the pilot ship Styrbjoern [1] came along side the Yi Peng 3 today. It traveled from the harbor of Grenaa to the ship and back. It possible that they took some people in for questioning or put a pilot and/or guards on the ship.

[1] https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=219003826

By @a1o - 13 days
C-Lion -> Sea Lion, but not the IDE from JetBrains.
By @Gualdrapo - 13 days
Going from fishing illegally in south american waters to damaging internet cables in Europe.
By @adverbly - 13 days
Should be very easy to verify if this was the cause.

All you have to do at this point is go look at the cable near the crossings.

If there is evidence of an anchor hitting the cables in both of these locations then you've got pretty clear proof.

Someone should obviously be checking into this right now. No point speculating until it's confirmed really.

I guess you might still want to board just to find out weather there is any evidence of intent rather than negligence in the case that this is confirmed to be the cause...

By @HelloNurse - 13 days
Crowdsourced military intelligence offers some hope for the future.
By @hinkley - 13 days
Do we need to get James Cameron and associates to design a DitchWitch that can operate at 2 miles down? How deep can ship anchors go?
By @coriny - 13 days
Botswana is well in the top half of least-corrupt countries. I suspect you know nothing about Ukraine or Botswana.
By @rafinha - 13 days
If a cable goes down, isn't the traffic just re-routed? Don't see the point of intentional damage here.
By @selimnairb - 13 days
I guess WWIV has been on a slow burn for going on three years now.
By @mitjam - 13 days
It was crossing right on time for the interruptions, a Russian officer was on board, it slowed down while crossing, no other ships were slowing down in that area during that time (rulingnout headwinds) - it cannot get much clearer. China is now participating in hybrid warfare against Europe (unless they present stronger evidence against this assumption)
By @guerrilla - 13 days
So what would China's motivation be here?
By @a-french-anon - 13 days
So, when do we know it's not just another operation Northwoods?
By @shmerl - 13 days
How much did Putin pay Xi Jinping for it?
By @knowitnone - 13 days
They'll obviously point the finger at another country
By @jmward01 - 13 days
Completely aside from the cable discussion, I'm glad this was on bsky. I could finally follow the comments in the link again. I hope this trend continues.
By @bdjsiqoocwk - 13 days
I read somewhere that the captain is Russian. What a surprise.
By @matthewfelgate - 13 days
China will do more and more of this as the USA withdraws from policing the world.
By @weweersdfsd - 13 days
I think it's time for a special navy operation which captures a Russian or Chinese cargo ship every time a cable gets damaged. The ships and their cargo could be then sold to the highest bidder.
By @kkfx - 13 days
Ahem... Cui prodest/cui bono?

What kind of interest Chinese could have to damage such cables? IMVHO ZERO. Also I doubt Russians have interests to do so.

Who could be interested?

- some private company for makes and insurance/the public pay to fix something who need money from the owner for other reasons (like I break on purpose my car to get it repaired for free or at least less money than what it would costing me avoiding the self-sabotage);

- some countries wanting war at all costs trying to create a casus belli to justify the push toward WWIII

- some countries experimenting the resilience of their infra

I fails to see any other potentially interested party.

By @sedan_baklazhan - 13 days
So Two Minutes Of Hate towards Russia is over in this aspect? Very Orwellish.
By @dfadsadsf - 13 days
It could be false flag operation to create pretext for NATO/EU to block shipping to Russian ports in Baltic Sea.

Similar to Nordstream destruction in 2022 it could have been either Ukrainians or CIA/NSA. This could be last attempt by current US administration elements to create leverage for the Ukraine before negotiations start.