Subsea cable projects owned by American technology giants including Google and Meta face heightened risks of deep-sea sabotage in the Pacific Ocean, according to a recent report. This development aligns with Chinese research vessels spending significant time surveying undersea cables, alongside commercial Chinese ships facing investigations for cutting cables in Asian and European waters.
Rising Threats to Internet Infrastructure
Accidents involving ship anchors and bottom-trawling fishing nets dragging across the seabed account for the majority of damage to the undersea cables that form the backbone of the Internet, while storms and underwater landslides also contribute. However, escalating international tensions and open conflicts have drawn intense scrutiny toward suspicious cable-cutting incidents, as analysts caution that countries like China and Russia utilize cable tampering and sabotage as gray-zone tactics below the threshold of direct military conflict.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an independent government advisory body to Congress, published a research report outlining these gray-zone tactics directed at the internet’s subsea infrastructure. The London-based think tank China Strategic Risks Institute authored the report under a contract, and it was published in September 2026.
Mapping Vulnerabilities
To assess these threats, the report authors developed an interactive Trans-Pacific Cable Gray Zone Vulnerability Index, which maps Pacific cable routes and ranks those facing the highest risk levels. This index aims to assist in determining which cables require priority protection, such as through the deployment of underwater sensors or dedicated monitoring patrols.
The vulnerability index calculates risk factors based on several elements, including cable route depths, proximity to shipping traffic, ownership details, China’s exclusive economic zone and territorial claims, and whether routes connect to Taiwan. Taiwan functions as a self-governing island democracy claimed by China, which has escalated military aircraft and warship maneuvers around the island in recent years, making it a major geopolitical hotspot.
