Reuters spoke about the “underwater war” between the United States and China over fiber optic deals

Chinese HMN Technologies Co Ltd refused to participate in the laying of a submarine cable to Western Europe due to pressure from the United States, reports Reuters. The agency claims that Washington launched a whole campaign so that the participation in the project eventually went to the American SubCom. According to Reuters, the US thwarted at least six such deals “for fear of Beijing spies.”

The SEA-ME-WE 6 project provides for laying more than 19,000 km of submarine telecommunications cable from China to Western Europe. The laying work began in 2022 and should be completed by 2025. The cost of the project is estimated at $500 million. It was ordered by a consortium of more than a dozen foreign firms. Three Chinese state-owned companies – China Telecom, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom – as members of the consortium were to finance the project. China Telecom and China Mobile together accounted for about 20% of the investment, but in the end they refused to participate. China Unicom has retained its share so far.

So far, six fiber optic cable deals in the Asia-Pacific region involving Chinese companies have been derailed by US interference in recent years, Reuters says. The agency writes that the US government is “concerned about China’s ability to spy on these communications cables.” In particular, the influence of the American authorities affected the Google and Meta project (recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned) to lay fiber optic cables from the United States to Hong Kong. The project, called the Pacific Light Cable Network, was eventually rerouted to Taiwan and the Philippines, and the hundreds of miles of cable to Hong Kong now “lay derelict on the ocean floor,” agency sources said.

Laura Keffer