Chinese Cable Capers

More Taiwan provocation.

China appears to have again cut one of Taiwan’s undersea cables, the fifth time in the last month. If you missed Playing Jenga With Shipping six weeks ago, now would be a good time to look. Basically the globalism shipping we’re used to depends on the U.S. Navy ensuring freedom of the seas AND the ability of Lloyds of London and other insurance carriers to assess risk and cover ships. Activity like this could cause things to come undone very quickly. A final post collapse configuration would see regional safety but the days of going where ever when ever would be over.

There are two other things to note here - the first being that Russia’s shadow fleet is nominally insured by an entity in Russia. If they have a large tanker come apart in the Bay of Biscay or the North Sea, there won’t be any payouts, it’s a smoke screen. The second is that this is early Cold War grade brinkmanship. China imports 75% of their agricultural inputs. If they mess with Taiwan, then Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore are going to mess with them. The dead will number in the nine digits if it lasts for more than a quarter or two.

I do NOT like what I see, but I’m not going to close my eyes and hope it goes away.