China's Strategic Space in the Digital Undersea

The Mapping China’s Strategic Space project seeks to better understand what constitutes the “strategic space” beyond China’s national borders that Chinese leaders consider vital to their pursuit of national political, economic, and security objectives and to the achievement of China’s rise. A new essay for the project by April A. Herlevi examines how the PRC’s maritime and digital goals intersect with the undersea domain. She focuses on three areas of overlap—submarine fiber-optic cables, the mapping of the subsea floor, and deep-sea mining—and concludes by considering the implications of China’s expanding strategic space in the digital undersea. Read the essay on the Mapping China’s Strategic Space website.