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Chinese university applies for undersea cable cutter patent — device developed by coastal university located across the sea from Taiwan | Patent documents say the 'ocean towing type cutting device' is designed for 'emergency situations.'

Patent documents say the 'ocean towing type cutting device' is designed for 'emergency situations.'

A team of engineers from Lishui University, located in the coastal Zhejiang province in China, applied for a patent for a “dragging type submarine cable cutting device” in 2020. Benjamin Schmitt of the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy also told Newsweek, “The fact that there are multiple technical patents that Chinese engineers applied for to conduct such a subsea cable cutting operation only adds to the suspicion that Beijing may have not only the motivation but also is actively developing technical options for completing these sort of subsea warfare operations in the future.” This is especially true as these cable-cutting incidents happen in international waters and are conducted by purportedly civilian ships with muddy registration and ownership records.

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