Chinese Intelligence Operations via Subsea Cables: The Hidden Battlefield Beneath the Oceans

Over 95 percent of global data flows through subsea cables—making them the silent backbone of the digital world and a prime target for intelligence warfare. This strategic intelligence product by Global Eye Intelligence delivers a sharp, threat-focused analysis of how China is leveraging subsea cable infrastructure to expand espionage capabilities, exert coercive leverage, and shape conflict outcomes without firing a shot.

The report unpacks how Beijing integrates commercial cable-laying firms, legal mandates, and military doctrine to blur the line between civilian infrastructure and state intelligence operations. It examines repeated cable disruptions around Taiwan, the expansion of China-linked cable networks across the Indian Ocean, and the strategic risks posed by dual-use digital infrastructure embedded in ports, logistics hubs, and maritime chokepoints. For India and other maritime democracies, the implications are immediate: exposure to surveillance, economic disruption, and potential digital isolation during crises.

Going beyond diagnosis, the analysis maps escalation scenarios ranging from grey-zone sabotage and covert tapping to wartime severance of critical links. It also outlines strategic blind spots in current policy discourse and highlights why subsea cables must be treated on par with cyber, space, and maritime security.

Why this matters now: future conflicts will be decided as much by data denial as by kinetic force. Those tracking these vulnerabilities early can shape resilience; those who ignore them will discover the threat only after connectivity is lost.

Follow Global Eye Intelligence to stay ahead of intelligence warfare that operates far below the surface—but strikes at the heart of national power.