Since the late 2010s, Australia has become increasingly concerned about Chinese economic and security presence in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) particularly in the digital telecommunications since 2017. Except Nauru, all PICs are now linked through at least one fibre optics cable to the Internet. Transporting 99% of intercontinental data traffic, subsea cables are considered as particularly strategic by all governments. The impact of the geopolitical tensions around digital technologies between Australia & its Indo-Pacific allies and China on the design of the subsea networks and connectivity of PICs have been largely overlooked. This paper will question the extent to which Australian perception of Chinese technologies as a national and regional security threat influence the deployment of subsea networks in PICs. Through the French school of geopolitics methodology, it studies the tensions occurring at different scales in PICs, focusing on policies, stakeholders’ opinions, geography and international relations. It is based on policy analysis, case studies and interviews with different stakeholders I have met during my first PhD fieldwork in Australia, Fiji and Vanuatu in 2023. It highlights that Australia’s growing concern about digital technologies originating from or that could be used by a “foreign government that conflict with Australian law” [1] tends to affect PICs’ Internet networks. Since the extension of the Belt and Road Initiative in Oceania, PICs have been dragged into global Indo-Pacific tensions and their digital infrastructure have been subject to an increased scrutiny. The threat of the Chinese presence to Australian and Indo-Pacific partners interests and security renewed the government commitment in PICs through the Pacific Step Up, notably in the digital sector. One of the most emblematic projects being the Coral Sea Cable system eventually funded by Australia after Huawei intended to build it. Hence, the technological alignment with PICs’ traditional partners seems to be consolidating, while sometimes hurting the Blue Pacific principles. Usually considered as purely technically designed, the South Pacific subsea networks are deeply embedded in the Indo-Pacific geopolitical polarisation.