The FCC wants to ban Chinese tech from the undersea cables that connect the U.S. to the rest of the world — proposed new rules would 'secure cables against foreign adversaries'

The FCC announced yesterday that it plans to vote on new rules "to unleash submarine cable investment to accelerate the buildout of AI infrastructure, while securing cables against foreign adversaries, like China," as part of its efforts to follow the America First Investment Policy Memorandum that President Donald Trump issued in February.

“Submarine cables are the unsung heroes of global communications, carrying 99% of all Internet traffic," FCC chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. "As the U.S. builds out the data centers and other infrastructure necessary to lead the world in AI and next-gen technologies, these cables are more important than ever."

Carr's proposal takes a two-pronged approach: one incentivizes "the use of American submarine cable repair and maintenance ships and the use of trusted technology abroad," including a proposal to "presumptively entirely exempt from Team Telecom review license applications that meet a high-level security standard."

The other disincentivizes the use of Chinese technology in global infrastructure by imposing additional restrictions on its use in any undersea cables that connect to the U.S.

"We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China," Carr said in his statement.

Perhaps the most prominent example arrived in November 2024 when two undersea cables that connected Finland and Sweden to the rest of Europe were cut; December 2024 reports suggested that underwater footage supported claims this was a deliberate act of sabotage conducted by a Chinese bulk carrier that dragged its anchor across the cables.

There are also concerns that China might abuse the use of its technologies in these undersea cables to conduct mass spying. Reuters published a special report in 2023 about the U.S. and China's mutual distrust over the other's involvement with this critical infrastructure. "Spy agencies can readily tap into cables landing on their territory," the report said, with one expert telling the outlet that "undersea cables were 'a surveillance gold mine' for the world’s intelligence agencies."

So what does Carr want to do about that? The FCC said that Carr's proposal would see it "adopt a range of measures to protect submarine cables against foreign adversaries—apply a presumption of denial for certain foreign adversary-controlled license applicants, limiting capacity leasing agreements to such entities, prohibiting the use of 'covered' equipment, establishing cybersecurity and physical security requirements, and more—all while streamlining the Commission’s license review procedures."

This wouldn't be the first time the U.S. looked to ban Chinese tech from communications infrastructure. Equipment made by Huawei and ZTE was banned from use in American telecommunications in 2019, for example, although the Pentagon argued in 2024 that it was effectively impossible not to use Huawei's products in some capacity because it's the largest telecoms provider in the world. Presumably, these restrictions would face similar obstacles if they're accepted.

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