China urged to protect underwater cables amid growing fears of ocean sabotage

Shanghai Maritime University law professor Guo Ran is calling on China to establish its own legal framework for protecting underwater fiber-optic cables, citing increasing global anxieties over sabotage of critical ocean infrastructure. These cables are vital, transmitting about 99% of all global intercontinental data and forming the physical backbone for technologies like artificial intelligence.

Guo's recommendation, published in the policy journal Democracy and Legal System, highlights China's significant interest in safeguarding these cables. As a major coastal state and a key investor in the Digital Silk Road, Beijing's initiative to expand digital and telecommunications infrastructure as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has a vested interest in ensuring the security of this global data highway.

While China has enacted laws such as the Data Security Law and the Cybersecurity Law, these primarily focus on data processing and cross-border data flows. Guo points out that the physical infrastructure of subsea cables has remained largely unregulated within these existing legal structures. The professor advocates for a governance system for international subsea cable security that possesses both international legal legitimacy and practical defense capabilities, emphasizing the need for China to take a leading role in this area.

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China should establish a governance system for international subsea cable security that has both international legal legitimacy and practical defence capabilities