Summary

China expressed willingness to cooperate with Sweden’s investigation into the severing of two Baltic Sea data cables on November 17-18, near where a Chinese-flagged vessel, Yi Peng 3, was sighted.

Sweden has formally requested China’s collaboration and asked the ship to move to Swedish waters for inspection.

The cables, linking Finland-Germany and Sweden-Lithuania, have been repaired. Authorities from Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, and Germany are investigating, with Germany suspecting sabotage.

Russia dismissed accusations of involvement as “absurd.” China stated it is in active communication with Sweden.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    28 days ago

    Pure speculation on my part here, but could it be that this was done at the behest of Russia by the people on the ship, maybe on the orders of the company that owns the ship, but not an officially sanctioned PRC operation?

    • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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      28 days ago

      Or just by a Russian captain on a Chinese ship. This is an earlier article later ones omit this. A few different sources say the captain is Russian, but none of the ones in the news today mentioned it. The only information given is that the ship itself is Chinese.

      with the evidence so far pointing to a Chinese merchant vessel with a Russian captain.

      • bean@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        I noticed that too when it first hit. Hmm. I wonder why the tone changed

        • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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          27 days ago

          Indeed, quite interesting. I read the OP article and remembered that initially there was more information, it made me think something had changed behind the scenes.

    • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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      28 days ago

      It’s possible, we won’t know until we investigate. Seems very positive for diplomacy that Beijing is open to discussion and investigation here, either way.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        28 days ago

        It’s Beijing’s openness that is why this is what I’m speculating. I think they would be a lot less willing to cooperate if they had sanctioned this. But I’m no expert on international geopolitics, so… 🤷

        • sir_pronoun@lemmy.world
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          28 days ago

          They could just be trying to seem cooperative and uninvolved, though, right? 🤷‍♂️

        • JeffKerman1999@sopuli.xyz
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          28 days ago

          They don’t have the technology the USA have for splicing underwater cables so this would be a great opportunity to tap into the cables with the pretense of helping to fix them.

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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            28 days ago

            The synopsis says the cables are already repaired, and it take more than a random merchant vessel to repair underwater cables.

      • interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works
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        27 days ago

        Saying you’re open to something is also the diplomatic first step of stalling. There no way to know if they are being candid or disingenuous.

  • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
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    28 days ago

    China’s government likes to play both sides against the middle. With a population the size of theirs, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if they were perfectly fine throwing a few people under the bus on this.