Sweden has sent a formal request to China to cooperate with an investigation into suspected sabotage over the sudden disruption of two submarine internet cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month, after tracking data linked a Chinese ship to the incidents.

The Polish Economic Institute reports in Thursday's edition of Economic Weekly that despite the severance of two telecommunications lines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, network traffic was almost unaffected.

Sweden's prime minister says his government has formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the recent rupture of data cables on the Baltic Sea bed in an area where a China-flagged vessel was sighted.