SpaceWar.com reports: “Taiwan has identified 52 ‘suspicious’ Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the island, the coast guard said Monday, as Taipei seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables.

The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by Taiwan’s coast guard earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of the island.

The vessel was owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the coast guard said previously.

Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt to seize the island or blockade it.

Flags of convenience allow shipping companies to register their vessels in countries to which they have no link — for a fee and freedom from oversight.

The coast guard said 52 ‘suspicious’ Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience from Mongolia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Togo, and Sierra Leone had been highlighted for close monitoring based on port records and data from Tokyo MOU, a regional multilateral body for port state control.

Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons — including the amount of time they spent loitering or sailing slowly near Taiwan’s subsea cables in 2024…”