1d ago

China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order

www.scmp.com China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order

Beijing now has the power to disrupt global communications after scientists revealed a device that can sever undersea cables.

The tool, which is able to cut lines at depths of up to 4,000 metres (13,123 feet) – twice the maximum operational range of existing subsea communication infrastructure – has been designed specifically for integration with China’s advanced crewed and uncrewed submersibles like the Fendouzhe, or Striver, and the Haidou series.

88 comments

Please, do it

If only cables can be designed to pull down ships that try to cut or anchor drag them. Maybe defensive cable around the main cable. Or some kind bigger of casing/shell around actual cable.

No shit, lol. Those cunts have been cutting cables for almost a year now. This is why countries tend to hide the exact locations of cables. Shit is expensive.

If I had that type of technology I would not advertise it
- For me it's quite the opposite. It's all about power projection in the grand scheme of things.

Powerful seems like a pointless adjective here.
It doesn't take much power to destroy a cable. Did they invent a really long, and powerful, chain with a powerful anchor on it only usable by a boat with powerful electric winch?
Maybe they put AI in it too, for extra power of course
- Oh you mean the AI Pro Power Winch 9000? Available at a genocidal dictatorship near you for 3 easy payments of 19.99B USD.

"That could reset the world order"
Lmao, what hyperbolic bullshit. It's just a cable cutter. Most nations have shit like this, but thanks for letting us know in the title this is just Chinese propaganda.
- It will shift the orders from cables to starlink. Not the best idea tho, it sucks ass
  
  Just wait! Then they’ll start flooding space with mini satellites. Then they’ll start dogfighting with them. :)

Reset the world order by sending everybody including China back to stone age right? That’d be fun.
- Well, everybody except people hooked up to Starlink and other satellite based internet

Let me guess, they already tested it

This could have been a The Onion title

That country fucking sucks ass.
- It's give and take. China is smart enough to invest in its country and its people. They're making great scientific and technical advances that's on a course that will surpass the west in many areas. The individual rights and freedoms are terrible though to the point where unsanctioned creativity is punished.
  
  The whole country is dystopian. But agree there are smart people. They are just used for doing/inventing awful stuff.
  They are playing the long game and are currently the only ones benefiting from all that happens. They sit by idly watching our idiot leaders antagonise each other.
  
  Lmao people will say this same shit about the us in 8 years when all the rights have been stripped and it’s run by tech bros
- they're also experimenting with dogfighting satellites
  https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/21/china/china-space-force-dogfighting-satellites-intl-hnk/index.html
  
  That seems less concerning to me after reading the article.
  Russia and the US are also known to conduct proximity operations to their own and other satellites, she added.
  […]
  Referring to China’s operations as “dogfighting” in space is “not helpful” because it “automatically ascribes hostile intentions to activities that frankly the US also undertakes,” Samson added.
  It’s concerning that they are developing the capability (which can be used in multiple ways) in the same way that any geopolitical rival developing capacity that competes is concerning, but “dogfighting” evokes the idea that China is planning to fly around and blow stuff up, in an irresponsible, Kessler syndrome-inducing way.
  
  That country fucking sucks major ass. Space lasers when?
- china is pretty cool.
  xi has been a harmful influence.
  
  I disagree. China is a scary place with face recognition and all that shit. I wouldn’t ever travel there. If my job sent me there, I would rather quit than travel to china.
  Fuck china. Also Chinese culture in general is pretty unappealing to me, who is used to a free life without all these stupid and arbitrary „rules“ like having to be married or else you’re worthless and all that crap.
  Also their factories have grids in front of windows so workers can’t kill themselves by jumping out. Tells me all I need to know.
  I hate the whole thing, not just the government.
  But please note that I do not blanket hate all Chinese people though.
- Yes, they're smarter than us.
  
  Thanks for the laugh.

SATCOM here we come!
- Don’t worry, they’re working on satellite warfare too. Kessler syndrome, here we come
  
  Working on the thing we've had for half a century? Improving sure but thaad and kenetic kill devices have been around forever like South Korea just showed video of their testing which means it's almost certainly last gen and the new Gen is deployed.
  https://youtu.be/RnofCyaWhI0
  https://youtu.be/DfiAPx0rPXg
  
  I sincerely hope they’re smart enough not to trigger that.
  Someone posted an article elsewhere on the thread about China practicing “dogfighting” in space - which, after you remove the fear-mongering, is just them figuring out how to do satellite-satellite maneuvering. Still immense opportunity for runaway collisions, but it seems like the military applicability is more toward sabotage than blowing things up. I could definitely see a scenario where high value satellites have had small boosters affixed to them, their electronics tampered, or some other way of commandeering or de-orbiting them to deprive their owners of them. A microwave + laser could disable smaller sats from above, then ablate some of their exterior to sap momentum so gravity drops them in short order. (Maybe. That’s idle speculation, but generating the power and dissipating the heat in space could make that idea impossible.)
- Weird way to pronounce starlink, since it seems that’s what they’re hoping for. Privatizing the government
- Seriously.. Anything but Starlink

...as reported by the South China Morning Post lol
- Historically they were a solid paper, based out of Hong Kong. It’s a toss up these days though, not sure.
- let's hope it's bs
  
  They already do it by simply dragging boat anchors across, it's obviously going to be weaponized further. There have multiple data and power cables cut like this in the Baltic sea recently. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/30/europe/baltic-sea-cable-anchor-drag-russia-intl-latam/index.html

Fucker McGucker, this is evil

Good thing we have the channel tunnel I guess, repurpose that for data cables that are protected.
- I didn't know we have a channel tunnel to the american continents
  
  Sure, it will be a shame to lose south/central America and Canada, but nothing else of value over there.

Operational depth is essentially the same as the claimed operational depth that oceangate sub that popped the other year. I have a lot more confidence that these things will actually work when China does it instead of some incompetent millionaire/billionaire.

88 comments