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

The U.S. economy is threatened by adversaries like China that target undersea cables with the ability to “inflict devastating economic chaos almost at will,” a former U.S. intelligence official warned Sunday.

These cables carry 99% of the world’s data and support up to $10 trillion in daily financial transactions, according to reports.

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

Taiwan, a hotbed of tensions between the United States and China, has reported about 30 submarine cable incidents in recent years, including one in which Chinese ships allegedly severed cables and disrupted communications for months.

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Two members of the Taiwan Coast Guard board a Togolese-flagged cargo ship to inspect it for suspected damage to a submarine cable connecting Taiwan Island and Penghu Island in the waters off Penghu, Taiwan, February 25, 2025. (Taiwan Coast Guard/Anadolu)

“America depends on the fragile nervous system of undersea cables for modern life,” Badger, a former Pentagon official and author, told Fox News Digital, before warning that America’s adversaries “are seeking to turn the ocean floor into a battlefield.”

“The asymmetric threat: China and Russia devote far more resources to attacking undersea infrastructure than the United States or its allies do to defending them,” Badger said.

“They have identified one of our greatest vulnerabilities, and we have not caught up. A coordinated strike against America’s undersea infrastructure could fundamentally disrupt our way of life – the Internet, banks, energy markets and military communications all pass through these cables. The dollar cost is almost incalculable, and the real damage would be the chaos and political instability that would ensue,” he said.

Badger’s remarks came after Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., alongside Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced the bipartisan Strategic Undersea Cables Act of 2026 in April.

The legislation aims to strengthen the security and resilience of critical underwater infrastructure.

TAIWAN COAST GUARD ARRESTS CHINESE CREW SHIP SUSPECTED OF CUTTING SUBMARINE CABLE

The Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is anchored in the Kattegat Sea near Granaa, Denmark, November 20, 2024. The Danish Navy said it was monitoring the ship in the Baltic Sea as part of investigations into suspected sabotage of underwater telecommunications cables by Finland and Sweden. (Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP)

“Undersea cables are important for a variety of 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.

In April, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed the success of a deep-sea mission testing an advanced “electro-hydrostatic actuator,” a device capable of cutting armored underwater cables at depths of 3,500 meters, according to reports.

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

“This is hybrid warfare in its purest form, designed to weaken the adversary below the threshold of declared war,” Badger said, noting that incidents such as anchors dragging on the seabed can provide plausible deniability.

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

“The cables give Beijing and Moscow the ability to inflict devastating economic chaos almost at will,” Badger warned. “This gives both countries enormous strategic leverage over the United States”

China could also potentially target U.S. submarine cables to deter U.S. engagement in Taiwan, according to Badger.

“Beijing could simultaneously target the cables landing in the United States, not to win militarily, but in order to break the will of the American public to intervene in Taiwan,” he said.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, while the United States – Taiwan’s largest unofficial ally – supplies 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 essential resources of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Anniki Mikelsaar, of the Oxford Internet Institute, said the growth in the use of AI means “an increase in capacity requirements for submarine cables. Not all recent cable damage incidents can be attributed to foreign adversaries: ICPC estimates that 150 to 200 cable ruptures occur each year worldwide, most of them accidents,” she said.