US Adopts Submarine Cable Rules to Address China Security Risk

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved new rules to accelerate the deployment and security of subsea data cables, citing growing threats from China and other foreign adversaries.

The move aims to strengthen US leadership in artificial intelligence and next-generation technologies by targeting the vast global network of subsea cables that carry about 99% of the world’s Internet traffic and support more than $10 trillion in financial transactions daily.

Long critical to global communications, these undersea networks are increasingly viewed as strategic assets vulnerable to sabotage and espionage.

“We not only want to unleash the deployment of new undersea cables ...