The underwater cables that play a vital role supporting the international digital economy are increasingly vulnerable to attack from low-cost drones, Chinese military researchers have warned.They said the seabed had long been viewed as a strategic “blind spot” due to the difficulty of exploration and the high cost of controlling it, but was becoming a “new arena for great power rivalry”.“The barrier to entry for undersea warfare is lowering,” Shi Guanglei and Shi Haiming from the National Defence University wrote in Science and Technology Daily, pointing to the Aukus pact between Australia, Britain and the United States as a key driver of this change.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS104
ENT12
WED · 2026-08-05 · 10:30 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0805-99343
NSR-2026-0805-99343News Report·EN·National Security
PLA scientists say submarine cables carrying 99% of global data could be ‘easy target’
Chinese military researchers have warned that the 99% of global data transmitted via submarine cables are becoming vulnerable to attacks. They stated that the seabed, previously a strategic "blind spot" due to exploration difficulties and high control costs, is now a "new arena for great power rivalry." The researchers from the National Defence University noted that the "barrier to entry for undersea warfare is lowering," citing the Aukus pact between Australia, Britain, and the United States as a significant factor.
Holly ChikSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-08-05 · 10:30 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
104words
Sources cited
2cited
Entities identified
12entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Chinese military researchers have warned that the 99% of global data transmitted via submarine cables are becoming vulnerable to attacks. They stated that the seabed, previously a strategic "blind spot" due to exploration difficulties and high control costs, is now a "new arena for great power rivalry." The researchers from the National Defence University noted that the "barrier to entry for undersea warfare is lowering," citing the Aukus pact between Australia, Britain, and the United States as a significant factor. This increased vulnerability is attributed to the accessibility of low-cost drones for potential attacks.
Confidence 0.85Sources 2Claims 4Entities 12
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
National Security
Technology
Tone
Mixed Tone
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.60 / 1.00
Mixed
LowHigh
Sources cited
2
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
The barrier to entry for undersea warfare is lowering.
quoteShi Guanglei and Shi Haiming
Confidence
0.90
02
The seabed is becoming a new arena for great power rivalry.
quoteShi Guanglei and Shi Haiming
Confidence
0.90
03
The Aukus pact is a key driver of the change in undersea warfare accessibility.
quoteShi Guanglei and Shi Haiming
Confidence
0.80
04
Submarine cables carrying 99% of global data are vulnerable to attack from low-cost drones.
factualPLA scientists
Confidence
0.80
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 104 words§ 05
Entities
12 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations3
Locations4
§ 06
Keywords & salience
8 termssubmarine cables
1.00
global data
0.90
undersea warfare
0.80
strategic blind spot
0.70
great power rivalry
0.70
low-cost drones
0.60
digital economy
0.50
aukus pact
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.