![\"undersea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/a4a6b8b1-undersea-cable-epa-images-pic-161025-1.webp.jpeg\"\/)
Over 99% of global internet traffic runs through undersea fibre-optic cables, many of which pass through disputed South China Sea waters. (EPA Images pic)
\nPETALING JAYA: Southeast Asia\u2019s booming digital economy faces rising risks as its reliance on undersea internet cables outpaces the region\u2019s ability to protect them, analysts have warned.<\/p>\n
Asha Hemrajani of Singapore\u2019s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies said the region\u2019s digital economy, projected to hit at least US$1 trillion, relied almost entirely on these cables.<\/p>\n
\u201cCables in general carry over 99% of intercontinental data traffic,\u201d she told FMT.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they remain vulnerable to accidental or deliberate damage, natural hazards, and climate change, resulting in disruption to public services, military links, and finance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of Asean\u2019s subsea infrastructure lies in the South China Sea, which is considered the fastest route and most cost-effective method to connect Southeast Asia with the Americas. But tensions in the disputed waters have complicated cable projects and repairs.<\/p>\n
While the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) invalidated China\u2019s \u201cnine-dash line\u201d claims, Asha said Beijing continued to impose permit requirements on cable routes and repairs.<\/p>\n
This, she said, had delayed several non-Chinese projects and discouraged cable investors from laying routes through the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese bureaucratic and political constraints, coupled with the shift of major US and allied cable investments away from Hong Kong and the South China Sea, illustrate how strategic competition and regulatory barriers have become major drivers of risk to subsea cables in this region,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Farlina Said of Malaysia\u2019s Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) said subsea cables straddled multiple jurisdictions, complicating governance and crisis response.<\/p>\n
She said the cables could be both a cybersecurity problem, involving encryption or red teaming processes, and a maritime security issue, which covers physical protection and repair rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe responsibility for these tasks may be unclear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Both analysts called for stronger regional coordination and implementation of existing frameworks to safeguard critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Asha said Asean should develop a \u201cmulti-stakeholder strategy\u201d to strengthen the 2019 Asean Guidelines for Strengthening Resilience and Repair of Submarine Cables, while also exploring defence-level cooperation for cable surveillance.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding more cables, such as the proposed Asean-wide cable to enhance capacity and diversity, is another important initiative,\u201d she said, adding that there were multiple legal initiatives that Asean member states could consider underpinning stronger regional cable resilience.<\/p>\n
Farlina said regulatory agencies must work more closely across sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsean does have a Guideline for Strengthening Resilience and Repair of Submarine cables released in 2019, but there are challenges in subsea cables security that require greater conversations on the maritime-cybersecurity nexus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The 47th Asean Summit and Related Meetings, to be held in Kuala Lumpur from Oct 24-28 under Malaysia\u2019s chairmanship, are expected to address regional security, digital infrastructure resilience and economic cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 99% of global internet traffic runs through undersea fibre-optic cables, many of which pass through disputed South…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[26552,74,734,10522,712,156446,24951,127142,115250,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-309596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-asean","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-cybersecurity","11":"tag-digital-economy","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-nine-dash-line","14":"tag-south-china-sea","15":"tag-submarine-cables","16":"tag-subsea-cables","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115387139962245372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}