The US Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the United States that include Chinese technology or equipment.
“We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement.
“We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.”
The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The US has broad data security concerns about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99 per cent of international internet traffic.
Since 2020, US regulators have been instrumental in the cancellation of four cables whose backers had wanted to link the United States with Hong Kong.
The FCC last year said it was considering new rules governing undersea internet cables in the face of growing security concerns, as part of a review of regulations on the links that handle nearly all the world’s online traffic.
