🚨 SUSPICIOUS VESSEL DOCKED IN 🇹🇼#TAIWAN: Meet the LONG AN — a ship currently in Tainan Port with some serious red flags.
🛑1/Firstly, @StarboardIntel notes it has been identified by the International Maritime Organization as a "false flag" ship.
[🧵THREAD 1/5] 🛑2/Looking deeper, the IMO shows it as being the Sansha Maru No.81 (likely original name) but registered with a false 🇨🇼Curacao flag. It is now broadcasting a 🇹🇿Tanzanian flag (a prob reaction to the IMO's designation) though it's still not properly registered under any flag. [🧵2/5]

🚨SUSPICIOUS MARITIME ACTIVITY ALERT
Five hours ago (26 Feb/0130 local time) 🇨🇳#China's cable-laying ship Zhong Hai Ke 1 turned off its automatic identification system (AIS) broadcast, going "dark" just outside the 🇵🇭#Philippines' exclusive economic zone. [🧵1/5]
Image: @StarboardIntel Zhong Hai Ke 1 was purchased in 2023 from Norwegian company DOF, which had operated it as the offshore supply ship Skandi Neptune. It was then converted for cable ops by China Comservice Marine Tech & is now touted as 🇨🇳#China's "most advanced self-powered cable laying vessel". [🧵2/5]
Image: Cosco Shipping

1/🇨🇳#CHINA-🇻🇳#VIETNAM: PRC maritime militia buildup in the Paracel Islands
It's not just the rhetoric around the Paracel Islands that has been increasing. China moved 7 maritime militia ships to the disputed archipelago on 2 December & is now involving them in its sovereignty assertion patrols off the central Vietnam coast. [🧵1/5] 2/There's a long history of the 🇨🇳#China Coast Guard asserting Beijing's sovereignty off 🇻🇳#Vietnam's central coast (west of the Paracels) & Vietnam countering with its own maritime militia. What's new is the direct involvement of China's maritime militia in these ops. [🧵2/5]

1/🚨"We brought specific, verifiable data--Golden Tiger brought only vague & unsubstantiated counter-claims."
-- Statement from @SeaLightFound Director @GordianKnotRay in response to Golden Tiger Shipping Agencies, Inc. (GTSAI)'s letter disputing our report, "The Hydra of Manila Bay."
Full response follows in thread below: [🧵1/10] 2/GTSAI's letter claims that SeaLight's report is "unsupported by technical or factual evidence." THIS IS DEMONSTRABLY FALSE. Our report, which is public (), provides specific ship tracks, MMSIs, timestamps, coordinates & IMO records. [🧵2/10]sealight.live/posts/the-hydr…