The Chinese director of a firm whose vessel Taiwan suspects of having damaged an undersea communications cable said on Wednesday there was no evidence the ship was involved, an incident that has alarmed the government in Taipei.

BEIJING - China on Jan 8 accused Taiwan’s ruling party of having “deliberately hyped” an incident in which a Chinese-owned ship was suspected of damaging a subsea telecoms cable.

The telecommunications cable connecting Taiwan to the mainland has been cut. Due to bad weather, a suspected vessel, a tanker under the Cameroonian flag, could not be detained and continued its journey to South Korea.

The incident raises concern China will try to cut all undersea cables to Taiwan in the event of a military invasion, so Taiwan is racing to develop a satellite-based internet service.

The incident caused only minimal disruption of service but sent a message about the vulnerability of the island and its internet.

Taiwanese authorities are investigating the severing of an undersea telecommunications cable near the island's northern coast, suspecting the involvement of a Cameroon-registered cargo ship with the Chinese name Shunxin-39.

A Chinese-owned vessel is suspected of severing an undersea cable off the Taiwanese coast recently, according to authorities on the island. Taiwan’s coast guard requested that the cargo ship return to shore for an investigation,