CHINA WATCHHunt for Answers Continues Over Chinese Ship's Suspected Role In Damaging Baltic Pipeline

By Reid Standish

A Chinese ship suspected of damaging an underwater gas pipeline and two telecom cables in the Baltic Sea is returning to China through the Russian Arctic as Finnish investigators continue to search for answers about the vessel’s role in the incident.

The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has led a probe into the October 8 damage to the Balticconnector pipeline that runs between Estonia and Finland and announced on October 20 that the Hong Kong-flagged NewNew Polar Bear container ship is the prime suspect, with its tracked location in the Baltic Sea coinciding with the time and place of the pipeline damage.

The NBI has since then said it believes the damage was caused by “an external force” that was “mechanical, not an explosion” and later revealed that a large anchor — believed to belong to the 169-meter-long ship — was found near the pipeline and likely broke off as it was dragged across the sea floor.

Investigators say it’s too early to determine whether the pipeline damage was sabotage or an accident, but the Finnish security intelligence agency said the involvement of a state actor “cannot be ruled out.”

The current mystery around the damaged Balticconnector pipeline and cables comes against the backdrop of past sabotage of underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

Amid rising tensions over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that brought gas from Russia to northern Germany were damaged by explosions.

Early theories highlighted potential Russian involvement and official investigations into the incident are ongoing, but leaked documents and U.S. intelligence reports obtained by The Washington Post have pointed toward potential saboteurs linked to Ukrainian intelligence. So, too, did an investigation by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

“As we have seen with Nord Stream, the investigation [into the Balticconnector pipeline] may take a long time,” Sari Arho Havren, an associate fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute, told RFE/RL. “In Finland’s case, the investigation has been progressing very fast, and communication, especially by the National Bureau of Investigation, has indeed been incredibly open.”

Before Finland determined the involvement of the Chinese ship, Estonian investigators had announced they were also tracking the Sevmorput, a Russian vessel that was also within the area of the pipeline and cables when they were damaged. Experts say this has added to the peculiarities around the case and the list of potential motives and culprits.