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Sweden has sharply criticized China for refusing to allow the Nordic country's top researcher to board a Chinese ship suspected of breaking two cables in the Baltic Sea.
The Yi Peng 3 sailed from its location in international waters between Denmark and Sweden on Saturday, and appears to be heading to Egypt after Chinese investigators boarded the ship on Thursday.
The Chinese team allowed representatives from Sweden, Germany, Finland and Denmark to board as observers, but denied access to Henrik Söderman, Sweden's public prosecutor, according to authorities in Stockholm.
“It is something that the government naturally takes seriously. It is noteworthy that the ship is sailing without the prosecutor being given the opportunity to inspect the ship and question the crew in the framework of the Swedish criminal investigation,” said foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard in comments provided to the Financial Times.
The Swedish government had it to put pressure on the Chinese authorities that the bulk carrier moved from international waters to Swedish soil to allow a full investigation into the disconnection of the Swedish-Lithuanian and Finnish-German data lines last month.
People close to the investigation said Thursday's boat ride proved beyond doubt that it was involved in the incident.
Yi Peng 3 is owned by Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, a one-ship company based near the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo. A representative for Ningbo Yipeng told the FT in November that “the government has asked the company to cooperate with the investigation”, but did not respond to further questions.
There are differences between countries regarding the motivation behind cord cutting. Some people close to the investigation said they believe it was poor seamanship that may have led to the anchor of the Yi Peng 3 drifting overboard in the Baltic Sea.
However, some governments have said privately that they suspect Russia caused the damage and may have paid money to the crew.
The severing of the two cables was the second time in 13 months that a Chinese ship had damaged infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
I The new Polar Beara Chinese ship, damaged a gas pipeline in October 2023 by dragging its anchors on the bottom of the Baltic Sea for a long distance during a storm. Officials reacted slowly to the incident, allowing the ship to leave the area without stopping, something they intended to prevent in the case of the Yi Peng 3.
Nordic and Baltic officials are skeptical about the possibility of the same thing happening twice in quick succession. One Baltic priest said: “The Chinese who are supposed to be in charge are really afraid that this is going on innocently.”