The Hong Kong flagged container ship Xin Xin Tian 2, was sailing at the location of the EstLink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day

https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/cc1795e3-40d3-4494-91c7-527c2040dbd7

by americ

35 comments

  1. Original article by Iltalehti. Machine translation by ChatGPT.

    According to the MarineTraffic service, which monitors maritime traffic, the container ship Xin Xin Tian 2, sailing under the flag of Hong Kong, was at the location of the EstLink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day.

    The vessel was near the cable at 12:26 PM. Finland’s national grid operator Fingrid reported that EstLink 2 was disconnected from the grid at 12:26 PM. At the time of disconnection, the power transfer through the connection was 658 MW.

    Xin Xin Tian 2 departed from St. Petersburg on Christmas Eve and, according to MarineTraffic, is en route to the port of Port Said in Egypt.

    Fingrid is currently investigating the exact location of the break in the connection. It is not yet confirmed whether the disconnection occurred on land or if something happened to the submarine cable. It is also unclear whether the Xin Xin Tian 2 vessel has any connection to the disturbance in the power cable.

    – “Nothing is ruled out. We are turning over every stone to find out what caused [the break]. Sabotage is also considered a possibility,” commented Fingrid’s control center manager Arto Pahkin to Iltalehti earlier.

    There have been other recent sabotage suspicions in the Baltic Sea involving cargo ships sailing under the flags of China and Hong Kong.

    In November, the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 was suspected of cutting two critical telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. In October of last year, the Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Newnew Polar Bear was linked to damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline.

  2. Europe will allow every country to destroy their infrastructure, it will be worse than the immigrant waves. There is a strong lobby to allow infrastructure to be destroyed so the repair funds can be appropriated.

  3. If this one is also China, then they are openly waging war on NATO/EU and a military response should be implemented.

  4. [More likely culprit](https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3le5hxqjhnk2v):

    > Cook Island flag oil tanker Eagle S lost 25% of her speed minutes before she crossed the broken cable Estlink2. She crossed at 10:26Z, ie the time of cable fault.
    >
    > She proceeded at affected speed til she reached shallow waters, where she lost all momentum. After some maneuvers she regained speed.
    >
    > Eagle S seem a very good candidate for a vessel guilty of the damage. Her dynamics are very similar to those of Yi Peng 3 and Newnew Polar Bear, previous saboteurs of Baltic Sea infrastructure.
    >
    > Eagle S is right now stationary in the middle of the fairway, ~50 km SW of Helsinki. International waters
    >
    > […]
    >
    > Another suspect quoted is Xin Xin Tian 2. That ship shows none of the typical dynamic in her track and crosses cable a few minutes early.

    EDIT Update as of 22:03 EET (21:03 CET)

    > Cook Island oil tanker EAGLE S is almost certainly arrested as a prime suspect in todays breakdown of 658 MW connector Estlink2
    >
    > Finland Coast Guard patrol ship Turva just turned on AIS. The two vessels are stationary on Finnish territory. Turva was also very involved in Yi Peng 3-case a month ago

    [Source, with image](https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3le5qwcpnxs2v)

  5. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are literally waging an open war on Europe. Preparation infrastructure strikes (modern warfare 101) and Europe is doing absolutely nothing.

  6. I am guessing Russia is using Chinese flag cargo ship to wage a silent war on Europe. Europe should just face the fact and really get this war and over with.

  7. Crazy how every time an under water cable gets cut it’s either a Chinese or a Russian ship. Fuck China and Russia.

  8. When Musk will show up as saviour? With his starrlink.

  10. Most people do not understand how the international shipping industry works. A ship can have a very complex background, try a shipping company registered in the Cayman Islands, the shareholders are mainly American and the company is managed and operated from Singapore. The ships are built in China or Korea, the ships are registered in Senegal or the Marshall Islands, the ships themselves are owned by Brits and crewed by Filipinos or Indians, and carry mainly German cargo. So what flag is flown, or the individual registry, doesn’t tell us anything about the combined background of the ship. It could even just be a conspiracy to bribe the crew for $100,000. Is anyone really stupid enough to fly their flag to identify themselves when they do something bad?

  12. That’s not even Cantonese spelling, but Mandarin Pinyin. Must be a false flag

  13. Its about time to close the Baltic sea entrance…. If the stupid Russians dont want their port to be still open, just close it down ffs…

  14. If they intentionally destroy vital infrastructure they should be treated as enemy combatants and sunk. This is no different than a military ship doing the same. It’s an act of war.

  15. This is so stupid.

    Here in the Nordics, Finland out of all, should have the shortest fuse when it comes to Ruzzian fuckery. 

  16. Destroying infrastructure is considered an act of terrorism under international law.

  20. It’s always the Chinese or the Russians. And they wonder why they are despised.

  21. It makes no sense to retaliate without having sufficient hard power. Currently we already in a cyber war with china and russia and these types of attacks are going to be normal folks until we get our shit together with EU,NATO and the US this is collateral damage.

  23. Perhaps if such ships accidentally hit some mines, it might turn out that they avoid areas with mines, e.g. areas where there are cables, in a large arc. 😉

  25. saw the name and thought Belgium! um… no, i misread, it was not Tin Tin Xian…

  26. We shouldn’t discount the possibility of a Russian false flag with a double objective. Russia of course has a direct interest to sabotage power and communications transmission over the Gulf of Finland. Secondly they have an interest to sow discord in Sino-European relations. China is definitely not a full ally of Russia and the Finnish president recently met with the Chinese premiere, both crediting the meeting as a success. Russia and the war in Ukraine was bought up in the meeting and actually the topic was bought up by the Chinese president rather than president Stubb. Some experts considered the meeting a snub towards Russia, possibly because China is not happy about their escalating relationship with North Korea.

  28. Is there something critical (in the context of a NATO/Russia conflict), about Baltic cables?

  29. Russian sabotage delivered by the Chinese. I’m sure NATO will run away with their tail between their legs once again.

  30. Whaaat? A chinese ship? Agaain? This must clearly have been a freak accident, since china has no connection to someone else who needs a distraction and is happy to ask for favours from his friends.

    Obvious /s

  31. Just board them and get the logs for God sake!! Make stuff up or escort those ship as soon as they leave Ruzzian waters!

  34. It would sure be awful if a large ship accidentally ran into that one.

  35. So… Time to ban Chinese owned ships from the Baltic, right?

Comments are closed.