China invested 500 million USD in fiber optic cables to confront the US
China is developing a $500 million undersea fiber optic cable connecting Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
According to four sources speaking to Reuters , the three carriers China Telecom, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom are aiming to create the most advanced and far-reaching undersea fiber optic cable network in the world. Called EMA, the cable will connect Hong Kong to China's Hainan island, then to Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France.
Workers install the 2Africa submarine fiber optic cable on the beach in Amanzimtoti (South Africa) on February 7. Photo: Reuters
The estimated cost of building the cable line is about 500 million USD. The material production and installation process is undertaken by HMN Technologies, a famous Chinese fiber optic cable company. Part of the cost of building the cable route was supported by the Chinese government.
China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and HMN Technologies declined to comment. Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country "always encourages Chinese enterprises to carry out foreign cooperation and investment", but did not mention the EMA project.
EMA is considered to compete directly with another cable line being built by SubCom of the US called SeaMeWe-6, connecting Southeast Asia with France, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and 6 other countries. The initial SeaMeWe-6 bidder included China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and telecommunications carriers from several countries. The project also chose HMN to build the cable line, but a pressure campaign from the US government caused the contract to be transferred to SubCom last year. China Telecom and China Mobile later withdrew.
Information about the new fiber optic cable line appeared a month after a source revealed that the US had successfully blocked a number of Chinese fiber optic cable projects in the past four years due to "concerns about tracking issues" - something the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. China then protested. The US also blocked construction permits for private submarine cables connecting the US with Hong Kong, including projects backed by Google, Meta and Amazon.
Fiber optic cables are responsible for more than 95% of international Internet traffic. For decades, they were mainly owned by telecommunications and technology companies. But recently, some countries are seeking to take control of fiber optic cables with the aim of determining economic and military supremacy in the coming decades.
According to some experts, the fact that the US and China jointly support the construction of separate cables connecting continents is unprecedented. According to Timothy Heath, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, this could be an early sign that the global Internet infrastructure, including fiber optic cables, data centers and mobile networks, is at risk of being fragmented. in the next decade.
Bao Lam (according to Reuters )
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