Taiwan extends penalty range for damaging subsea cables, pipelines

Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislature on Tuesday approved amendments to several laws that will include penalties for damaging undersea power cables, natural gas pipelines or water pipelines and allow for equipment used in the process to be confiscated.

The Executive Yuan had pushed for the amendments to the Natural Gas Enterprise Act, Telecommunications Management Act, Electricity Act, Water Supply Act, Meteorological Act, Commercial Port Law and Law of Ships to counter what it described in a September statement as a potential threat to national security.

It said the amendments would pave the way for harsher punishments in severe cases, add provisions for confiscating vessels, and require ships to activate automatic identification systems.

The amendments to the Electricity Act, the Natural Gas Enterprise Act and the Water Supply Act passed Tuesday authorize the confiscation of tools, vessels or mechanical equipment used in such offenses regardless of ownership.

The revision of the Electricity Act also specifically adds damaging undersea power cables to the range of offenses, while damaging undersea water and natural gas pipelines was added to the Water Supply Act and Natural Gas Enterprise Act, respectively.

Of note is that the penalties for intentionally damaging any undersea structures remained at one to seven years in prison with fines of up to NT$10 million (US$320,965).

Offenses involving negligence still carry penalties of up to six months in prison and fines of up to NT$2 million.

The move comes following repeated undersea cable incidents in waters around Taiwan, including a full cable disconnection in February on the Taiwan-Penghu Subsea Cable No. 3, which connects Taiwan proper to Penghu County, an archipelago of 90 islands in the Taiwan Strait.

The Chinese captain of the Togo-flagged cargo ship Hong Tai 58, which was involved in cutting the cable, was sentenced in June to three years in prison for destroying cables under the Telecommunications Management Act.

The Executive Yuan said on Sept. 18 it proposed amendments to "seven undersea-cable laws" to align penalties for damaging water and gas pipelines with those for destroying undersea cables.

Lawmakers have also requested the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to publish maps of undersea cables and pipelines before the "seven undersea-cable laws" take effect to prevent later claims of ignorance by potential offenders.