Many MindedPacific cable risk map puts Google, Meta and Verizon routes near the top
A September 2026 report from the London-based China Strategic Risks Institute, contracted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (an independent body advising Congress), ranks trans-Pacific undersea cables by vulnerability. Its interactive Trans-Pacific Cable Gray Zone Vulnerability Index weighs route depth, nearby shipping traffic, ownership, China's exclusive economic zone and territorial claims, and whether a cable touches Taiwan.
Risk is highest around Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, partly because cables linking them to the US cross shallow, busy shipping lanes. Several of the ten most at-risk cables are still under development and have large US company stakes. Google's TPU, Meta's ORCA and the E2A cable, co-owned by Verizon with firms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, all landed in the top five.
The concern is capacity as much as sabotage. The report warns that losing one cable could overwhelm direct capacity among the US, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines and push traffic onto slower routes. Losing several during a Taiwan crisis could strain trans-Pacific capacity overall, hitting internet communications, cloud services and financial trading. For connectivity, that means the cheap, abundant bandwidth we assume depends on a few physical lines through contested waters. Redundancy costs money, and the bill will likely land on the companies that own the cables.
A separate October 2026 CSIS analysis tracked over 200 research ships from 2020 to 2025. It found China-flagged vessels spent unusually long near subsea infrastructure, even compared with US and Russian ships. Taiwan also convicted a Chinese captain in 2025 for damaging the Tai-Peng 3 cable, with a three-year sentence.
The caveats matter. The index is a risk assessment, not evidence of sabotage of any named cable. Most cable damage comes from accidents such as trawling and dragging anchors, plus storms and landslides. The article says only that one Chinese-linked ship's movements near a Russian cable 'likely' reflect mapping interest. The source text was also truncated, so some detail is missing.
Source: Ars Technica