China’s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive (ICAD) activities pose a mounting threat to global democracies, with subsea cable sabotage emerging as a particularly alarming tactic. These fiber-optic cables, which carry over 99 percent of global internet traffic, form the backbone of modern communication networks—underpinning economic transactions, defense coordination, and digital infrastructure. Disruptions to subsea cables can have far-reaching consequences: these incidents can paralyze financial markets, hinder government operations, and limit access to critical intelligence. As Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has emphasized, securing these cables is a geopolitical imperative, not just a technical challenge. Without robust protective measures for undersea communications infrastructure, democracies risk falling victim to another destructive form of Beijing’s strategic interference.