WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - The Federal

Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt

rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine

communication cables to the United States that include Chinese

technology or equipment.

"We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in

recent years by foreign adversaries, like China," FCC Chair

Brendan Carr said in a statement. "We are therefore taking

action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign

adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical

threats."

The United States has for years expressed concerns about

China's role in handling network traffic and the potential for

espionage. The U.S. has broad data security concerns about the

network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of

international internet traffic.

Since 2020, U.S. regulators have been instrumental in

the cancellation of four cables whose backers had wanted to link

the United States with Hong Kong.

The FCC last year said it was considering new rules

governing undersea internet cables in the face of growing

security concerns, as part of a review of regulations on the

links that handle nearly all the world's online traffic. The FCC

said it was considering barring the use of equipment or services

in those undersea cable facilities from companies on an FCC list

of companies deemed to pose threats to U.S, national security,

including Huawei, ZTE China Telecom and

China Mobile.

Carr said the FCC is taking action to "guard our

submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access

as well as cyber and physical threats."

The FCC will also seek comment on additional measures to

protect submarine cable security against foreign adversary

equipment.

The cutting of two fiber-optic undersea telecommunication

cables in the Baltic Sea prompted investigations of possible

sabotage.

In 2023 Taiwan accused two Chinese vessels of cutting

the only two cables that support internet access on the Matsu

Islands and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea may have been

responsible for the cutting of three cables providing internet

service to Europe and Asia.