The Taiwan Research Hub presents
Undersea Cable Resilience: Case Studies of East Asia and Northern Europe
With Charles Mok Research Scholar at the Global Digital Policy Incubator of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University
Chaired by Dr Chun-yi Lee, Taiwan Research Hub
Tuesday 21 October 2025, 12.30-2 pm,
For those attending in Person : Lunch followed by talk in Room D13 Monica Partridge Building, University Park
For those attending online: an MS Teams link has been sent, the talk will start at 12:30 pm
Hybrid Event , registration link https://forms.office.com/e/gtZni85iZG
Talk abstract
Undersea cable resilience has become a hot topic of global geopolitical discussion, as a grey-zone tactic for state and non-state actors to disrupt the communication, economic and national security of strategic regions and countries in the world, from East Asia, to the Nordic and Baltic regions in North Europe. The talk will begin by focusing on the situation in Taiwan and its impact on infrastructure realignment in the East and Southeast Asia regions, with references to recent European and U.S. policy changes in protecting undersea cable infrastructures, global governance development, and the potential impacts on the present and future AI infrastructure boom. Finally, we will make policy recommendations for global democracies on critical infrastructure governance cooperation.
About the Speaker
Charles is a Research Scholar at the Global Digital Policy Incubator of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society, and a board member of the International Centre for Trade Transparency and Monitoring. Charles served as an elected member of the Legislative Council in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, representing the Information Technology functional constituency, for two terms from 2012 to 2020. In 2021, he founded Tech for Good Asia, an initiative to advocate positive use of technology for businesses and civil communities. As an entrepreneur, Charles co-founded HKNet in 1994, one of the earliest Internet service providers in Hong Kong, which was acquired by NTT Communications in 2000. He was the founding chair of the Internet Society Hong Kong, honorary president and former president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, former chair of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, and former chair of the Asian, Australiasian and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) of ICANN. Charles holds a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Chaired by
Dr Chun-yi Lee, Taiwan Research Hub