China and Russia could cause economic chaos with undersea cables, expert warns

The US economy is under threat from adversaries such as China, which is targeting undersea cables capable of “almost willfully causing devastating economic chaos”, a former US intelligence official warned on Sunday.

According to reports, these cables carry 99% of global data and support up to $10 trillion in daily financial transactions.

Andrew Badger, chief strategy officer Coalition SystemsThe defense technology startup spoke as President Donald Trump prepared to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for talks expected to focus on trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan.

Taiwan, a flashpoint in US-China tensions 30 submarine cable incidents Including in recent years when Chinese ships allegedly cut cables and cut off communications for months.

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“America depends on its fragile nervous system of undersea cables for modern life,” said Badger, a former Pentagon official. writerHe told Fox News Digital before warning that US adversaries were “trying to turn the ocean bottom into a battlefield.”

“The asymmetric threat; China and Russia devote far more resources to attacking undersea infrastructure than the United States or its allies spend on defense,” Badger said.

“They identified one of our greatest vulnerabilities, and we couldn’t keep up. A coordinated attack on American undersea infrastructure would fundamentally disrupt our way of life; the internet, banking, energy markets and military communications all pass through these cables. The cost of the dollar is almost incalculable, and the real damage will be the chaos and political instability that will follow,” he said.

Badger was quoted by Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. It comes after Sen. and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D.N.H., introduced the bipartisan Strategic Submarine Cables Act of 2026 in April.

The legislation is intended to strengthen the security and resilience of critical subsea infrastructure.

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Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 anchored in the Kattegat sea near Granaa, Denmark, on November 20, 2024. The Danish navy said it was tracking the ship in the Baltic Sea amid investigations by Finland and Sweden into suspected sabotage of undersea telecom cables. (Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP)

“Undersea cables are important for several reasons. They carry 99% of the world’s internet traffic. They also support $10 trillion in financial transactions every day,” Barrasso said in a statement. he said.

In April, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed a successful deep-sea mission that tested an advanced “electro-hydrostatic actuator” device capable of cutting armored submarine cables at depths of 3,500 meters. reports.

Similar suspected disruptions have been reported in Europe and elsewhere, raising concerns about coordinated “grey zone” operations designed to probe Western responses while remaining below the threshold for open conflict.

“This is hybrid warfare in its purest form, designed to weaken the enemy below the declared war threshold,” Badger said, noting that events such as anchors drifting across the sea bed can provide plausible deniability.

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A split image shows Chinese President Xi Jinping on the left and President Donald Trump on the right. (Vincent Thian/POOL/AFP via Getty Images; Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Cables give Beijing and Moscow the ability to create devastating economic chaos almost at will,” Badger warned. “This gives both countries a tremendous strategic advantage over the United States.”

According to Badger, China could also potentially target American submarine cables as a deterrent against US intervention in Taiwan.

“Beijing may simultaneously target cables to the United States, not to win militarily, but to break the American people’s will to intervene in Taiwan,” he said.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, while the United States, Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, provides weapons under a law requiring it to help the island defend itself.

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The Taiwan Strait is also a critical artery for the most important sources of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Anniki Mikelsaar The growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence “means increasing capacity requirements in submarine cables,” said the Oxford Internet Institute. “Not all recent cable damage incidents can be attributed to foreign enemies: ICPC estimates that 150 to 200 cable breaks occur annually worldwide, most of them accidents,” he said.