The index recommends that the danger to cable televisions is greatest around Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, partially since of China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan however likewise due to the fact that subsea cable televisions connecting the area to the United States need to go through shallow water with hectic shipping lanes.

Amongst the 10 trans-Pacific cable televisions recognized as being most at threat, a number of are still under advancement with substantial ownership stakes from United States business. These consist of the TPU job, owned by Google, the ORCA cable television, owned by Meta, and the E2A cable television, co-owned by Verizon together with companies in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. All 3 of these jobs had danger ratings in the leading 5.

The report authors alert that any major disturbance to a single trans-Pacific cable television might “run the risk of frustrating present offered capability on direct routings in between the United States, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, requiring information onto slower, less direct paths.”

An even higher interruption including numerous cable televisions, possibly throughout a geopolitical crisis including Taiwan, might “considerably minimize headroom and even overwhelm trans-Pacific capability as an entire,” with interactions in between the United States and Indo-Pacific area needing to reroute through other cable televisions around the world. That might have significant financial effects for Internet interactions, cloud services, and monetary trading.

Dual-use innovations and study tracks

This comes as the world’s significant powers continue to develop their fleets of military submarines and undersea drones, in addition to additional establishing and releasing dual-use innovations, like undersea cable television cutters that might either be utilized for repair work or sabotage.

China has actually likewise released a fleet of research study vessels geared up with seabed-mapping innovations near trans-Pacific undersea cable televisions, according to a different report released in October 2026 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank based in Washington, DC.

The CSIS experts discovered that China-flagged research study ships stood apart as outliers in the quantity of time invested near subsea facilities. They examined the motions of more than 200 research study ships from numerous countries in between 2020 and 2025.