The U.S. is backing a $14 billion cable to keep Southeast Asia’s internet out of China’s reach

The U.S. is bankrolling a new trans-Pacific internet cable that deliberately skirts the South China Sea, as Washington tries to wall off Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure from China.

On Sept.

14, the U.S.

Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) said it would fund a feasibility study for a new subsea cable that links Thailand, the U.S., and five other Southeast Asian countries, and bypass the South China Sea.

“The military conflicts in the Middle East and Europe show that geopolitical crises can trigger cyber or physical disruptions to subsea cables,” says Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

“The U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies believe that China could use similar tactics.” The project reflects Washington’s continued drive to control the infrastructure that underpins the internet and the AI boom .

Southeast Asia may end up stuck between two different tech ecosystems, one led by Washington and the other by Beijing.

Singapore, for example, joined Washington’s Pax Silica alliance last December, but is also reportedly considering an invitation to join the China-led World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. (Other Southeast Asian countries are split between the two AI blocs: the Philippines has joined the U.S.’ Pax Silica, while Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar are part of China’s alliance.) “Southeast Asian countries need to re-evaluate what neutrality means today for each of them, and how policy decisions across sectors collectively determine whether they are too dependent on any major power during times of peace or crisis,” says Muhammad.

Undersea battle Subsea cables are fiber-optic lines laid on the ocean floor that carry over 99% of internet traffic worldwide.

Just one cable—the Asia-America Gateway , built in 2009—connects the U.S. and Thailand.

The cable is notorious for its frequent outages, especially within the intra-Asia section between Singapore and Hong Kong, with most faults on the segment near Vietnam .

When the cable goes down, some Southeast Asian nations like Cambodia and Malaysia have few alternatives for rerouting traffic.

“It is only natural that a new cable be built, both for resilience and capacity reasons,” says Asha Hemrajani, a senior fellow at NTU.

“The aging AAG has experienced several serious outages… so it looks like the new cable is intended to be a next-generation successor to it.” Operators and insurers prefer cables that avoid the South China Sea.