China wants to build an underwater Internet network for $500 million to compete with the United States

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China's state-owned telecommunications companies are developing a $500 million underwater fiber-optic network that will connect Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The goal of the campaign is to compete with a similar American project.

This is reported by Reuters with reference to 4 sources involved in the deal.

China's three major operators — China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd (China Unicom) — are developing one of the most advanced and extensive undersea cable networks in the world, according to four people with direct knowledge of the plan. the world

The EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia) cable will connect Hong Kong with the Chinese island province of Hainan, and then run to Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France, 4 interlocutors said. They asked not to be named because they are not authorized to discuss potential trade secrets.

According to sources, it is planned to build an underwater fiber-optic Internet cable network worth approximately $500 million, which will be created by the Chinese company HMN Technologies Co Ltd. This company specializes in cable technology and is growing rapidly in this field. In addition, it is worth noting that her predecessor was the majority shareholder of the largest Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies.

HMN Tech, majority-owned by Shanghai-based Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd, will receive subsidies from the Chinese state to build the cable, the sources said.

China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, HMN Tech, Hengtong and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

News of the planned cable comes after Reuters reported last month that the US government, concerned that Beijing is collecting internet data, has successfully scuttled a number of Chinese undersea cable projects overseas over the past four years.

Washington has also blocked licenses for planned private submarine cables that would connect the United States to Hong Kong, including projects led by Google LLC, Meta Platforms, Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

More than 95% of all international Internet traffic is transmitted by submarine cables. These high-speed channels have been owned for decades by groups of telecommunications and technology companies that have pooled their resources to build these vast networks so that data can flow seamlessly around the world.

But those cables, vulnerable to espionage and sabotage, have become leverage in the escalating competition between the United States and China. Superpowers are fighting for dominance over advanced technologies that could determine economic and military superiority for decades to come.

The Chinese-led EMA project aims to compete directly with another cable currently being built by American company SubCom LLC called SeaMeWe-6 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe-6), which will also connect Singapore to France via Pakistan , Saudi Arabia, Egypt and half a dozen other countries along the route.

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