China’s state-owned telecom company is laying a $500 million undersea fiber optic internet cable network that will connect Asia. And the Middle East and Europe.
According to the news agency Reuters, the Chinese company’s project has been launched. In competition with a similar project supported by the United States.
The plan is a sign that the escalating technology war between the US and China threatens to tear apart the fabric of the internet.
Three Chinese companies, China Telecommunications Corp., China Mobile Ltd. and China United Network Communications Group Co.. They are laying the groundwork for the world’s most advanced undersea Fiber optic cable network. Four people with knowledge of the project told Reuters.
The proposed cable network called Europe Middle East Asia (EMA) will connect Hong Kong with the Chinese province of Hunan. Which will then link Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France.
The cable network for the project, which will cost $500 million, will be developed and laid by China’s HMN Technologies.
HMN Technology will receive a subsidy from the Chinese government for the cable project.
The three companies involved in the project did not respond to questions from Reuters in this regard, but China’s Foreign Ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that the government has always encouraged Chinese companies to invest and cooperate abroad. .’
United States had frozen licenses
News of the proposed cable project comes as Reuters reported last month. That the United States had frozen licenses for several undersea cable projects over the past four years. Fed up with China’s internet spying.
The US also revoked the licenses of several private sector cable projects that were connecting the US to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, including those of Google LLC, MetaPlatforms and Amazon.com.
95% of the world’s internet traffic is carried through submarine cables. These high-speed cables have been owned for decades by telecom and technology companies. That pool their resources to build these vast cable networks so that data travels around the world without interruption.
But the cables, which can be targeted for espionage and sabotage, have become weapons in the war between China and the United States to expand their influence. The major powers are engaged in a battle to dominate the latest technologies that will determine military and economic supremacy for decades to come.
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