China-US Cable Network (CUCN)
Retired30 km submarine cable system, ready for service 1999 }}.
Key facts
- Status
- Retired
- Ready for service
- 1999 }}
- Length
- 30 km
- Connects
- China,Guam,Japan,South Korea,Taiwan,United States
Landing points
- #Shantou, China, #Shantou — China
- Fangshan, Pingtung, Taiwan, Fangshan — Taiwan
- Chongming, Shanghai, China, Chongming — China
- Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, Okinawa Prefecture — Japan
- Pusan, South Korea, Pusan — South Korea
- Chikura, Chiba, Japan, Chikura — Japan
- Tanguisson Point, Tamuning, Guam, Tanguisson Point — Guam
- Bandon, Oregon, United States, Bandon — United States
- San Luis Obispo, California, United States, San Luis Obispo — United States
Overview
The China-US Cable Network, known as CUCN, was a trans-Pacific submarine cable system that entered service in 1999. Despite its name suggesting a direct bilateral link, the system served a broad arc of Asia-Pacific territories, threading together landing points across China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Guam and the continental United States before its eventual retirement.
Route and Landing Points
CUCN's landing network spanned nine stations. On the Chinese mainland, cables came ashore at Shantou in Guangdong Province and at Chongming in Shanghai — two geographically separated entry points that gave the system reach into both southern and eastern China. Taiwan was served via Fangshan in Pingtung County, while Japan had two landings: Okinawa Prefecture in the southwest and Chikura in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. Pusan in South Korea completed the Northeast Asian cluster.
Crossing the Pacific, the system touched Tanguisson Point in Tamuning, Guam — a common waypoint for trans-Pacific routes — before terminating on the US West Coast at two stations: Bandon in Oregon and San Luis Obispo in California. The dual US landings provided geographic redundancy for traffic reaching the American mainland.
The system's published length of 30 km is notably short for a trans-Pacific cable, and likely reflects a segment measurement rather than the full end-to-end route distance.
Ownership and Construction
Details on CUCN's ownership consortium and construction contractor are not documented in available records, which is not unusual for cable systems built in the late 1990s, when disclosure practices in the industry were less standardised than they became in subsequent decades. Design capacity figures are similarly absent from the record.
Regional Context
CUCN entered service during a period of rapid expansion in trans-Pacific cable infrastructure, when growing internet traffic between Asia and North America was driving demand for new capacity. Its multi-country landing structure reflected the collaborative consortium model common to that era, and its geographic footprint — anchored in China's two major coastal regions and reaching across the Pacific via Japan and Guam — positioned it as a meaningful link in the region's connectivity fabric during its operational life.