Why China's deep sea cable cutter matters
The United States is geographically isolated. The physical foundation of its global dominance is information: the submarine cables stretching from its shores carry data flows vital to finance, media, the internet, technology, the military and AI.
What would happen if those cables were all severed? Africa, Asia and Europe could remain connected via land cables, but North America would only have links to South America. Until recently, few gave this much thought.
Last year, the South China Morning Post reported that China was developing a device capable of cutting deep-sea cables.
The technology is extraordinarily difficult, with cables often buried metres below the seabed, wrapped in layers of protective armour. Land-based cutters simply do not work under extreme deep-sea pressure. Some dismissed it as "science fiction".
This week, the Chinese government announced it had successfully tested this technology at depths of 3,500 metres.
Hypersonic weapons, thorium-based molten salt reactors, surface-to-air missiles with ranges of thousands of kilometres, electronic warfare and radar tech a generation ahead of the US, laser weapons, and super warships with enough firepower to destroy an entire carrier strike group… all of these Chinese technologies were once dismissed as "science fiction". Today, they are reality.
Underestimating China's true capabilities could pose risks to the world. Before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, few believed the Iranians could use drones costing a few thousand dollars to strike American assets, employ ballistic missiles to drive carriers from the Persian Gulf, or hit an F-35 with small air-defence weapons.
China's arsenal is many times larger than Iran’s, and its technological level is generations more advanced. Those who continue to dismiss the deep-sea cable cutter as science fiction would do well to reconsider.
Cheers,
Stephen
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