Opinion | Chinese sabotage or Nato paranoia? Cutting through the undersea cable conspiracies
Common damage to underwater infrastructure has been weaponised by Nato states and Taiwan in information warfare against mainland China
Protected by seven tough layers including advanced polymers, steel wires, aluminium and copper barriers before you reach the fibre optics, modern underwater communications cables are pretty robust.
Some are also buried under the seabed, to provide extra protection against trawling and anchoring by ships in busy waters.
There are more than 400 major active cables worldwide, spanning at least 1.3 million km (808,000 miles) and lying at an average ocean depth of 3,682 metres. As much as 99 per cent of the world’s digital communications – with the tiny remainder via satellites – passes through these submarine networks, without which the global economy and practically all the digital services it provides would cease to operate.
Still, the cables are not foolproof. At such ocean depths, many things can go wrong and accidents happen. There are an average of about 200 cable incidents a year, according to the International Cable Protection Committee.
The damage may be unintentionally caused by shipping, fishing, dredging and mining, as well as leisure craft activities. They can also be caused by the construction and operations of offshore infrastructure such as pipelines and wind parks, as well as earthquakes, seaquakes and volcanic eruptions.