this mysterious Chinese boat that Denmark is closely monitoring

Copenhagen dispatched several military ships to the vicinity of the “Yi Peng 3”. This Chinese bulk carrier was in fact in the area when the “C-Lion1” cable was damaged on Monday. At this stage, however, no link has been established.

The boat seems to be of interest to the Danish authorities, after the rupture of two cables in the Baltic Sea. Denmark announced on Wednesday November 20 that it was following a Chinese boat, the Yi Peng 3the day after the opening of investigations in Sweden and Finland for “sabotage”. “We are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3“the Danish Defense wrote to AFP, specifying that it would not make any further comments immediately. According to the tracking site VesselFinder, a Danish vessel, the P525was still nearby Wednesday afternoon. Earlier, the Norwegian navy also clarified that its forces were in the area. Without providing further details, either.

Several Danish ships, including the frigate HDMS Hvidbjoernhad joined this bulk carrier on Tuesday evening, after the rupture of the Cinia Oy C-Lion1 cable in the Baltic Sea. The incident occurred at dawn on Monday in the Swedish exclusive economic zone, east of the southern tip of the island of Öland, around 700 km from Helsinki, the Finnish operator said. At the time of the breakdown – 4:04 a.m., according to Cinia – the Yi Peng 3 was close to the area where the communications cable called “C-Lion1”, which connects Finland to Germany, was damaged. However, at this stage there is nothing to establish a formal link between the passage of the ship and the damage observed.

The German newspaper Bild wrote that the captain of this ship was a Russian national, but this information has not been confirmed by another source. The bulk carrier, built in 2001 and owned by the Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping Co, spent the night from Tuesday to Wednesday stopped in the Kattegat, a strait located between Denmark and the west coast of Sweden, according to the site specialized in Marinetraffic. According to the specialized site VesselFinder, the Yi Peng 3 had left Ust Luga, a Russian port located west of Saint Petersburg, on November 15.

Swedish police, who have been investigating suspicions of sabotage since Tuesday, confirmed that they were interested in the movements of a boat, without specifying which one. “Swedish police and prosecutors are interested in a vessel that was seen at the sites in question. It is not currently in Swedish waters”she wrote in a press release. For its part, Chinese diplomacy has rejected any suspicion. “China has always fully fulfilled its obligations as a flag state and requires Chinese vessels to scrupulously comply with applicable laws and regulations”said Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

As of Tuesday morning, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that a “sabotage” was certainly the cause of the damage. “No one believes these cables were cut by accident”he said. On Sunday morning, another telecommunications cable, the “Arelion”, linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, was damaged. The cable ship Cable Vigilanceunder the French flag, must leave Calais this Thursday to carry out repairs on the “C-Lion1”. The Finnish operator Cinia estimates that the repair should last between five and fifteen days.