The Battle for Subsea Cable Control: A New Front in US-China Relations
The construction of a subsea cable named SeaMeWe-6 by SubCom LLC, an American company, is causing tension in the ongoing “China vs USA Subsea War”. The cable, spanning over 12,000 miles of fiber on the seafloor, aims to transport data from Asia to Europe via Africa and the Middle East at a cost of $600 million. Three years ago, HMN Technologies Co Ltd, a Chinese-supported company, was on the verge of winning the contract at a much lower price of $500 million. However, the US government stepped in and awarded the contract to SubCom, citing concerns over Chinese espionage on critical communication cables. Over the past four years, at least six private undersea cable deals in the Asia-Pacific region have faced similar US government intervention, with HMN Tech often being denied the contract or rerouting or abandoning cables that link US and Chinese territories.
The US government’s efforts to remove a Chinese company from a Singapore-to-France cable project involved using both incentives and warnings to the project’s investors. So the US Trade and Development Agency offered training grants totaling $3.8 million to five telecom companies in countries along the cable’s route if they chose US company SubCom as the supplier. Then the State Department advocated for SubCom to win the contract and warned other countries about security risks posed by HMN Tech, including the possibility of remote surveillance equipment being inserted into the cable. American diplomats also cautioned foreign telecom carriers about the risks of working with HMN Tech, a Chinese company seeking to acquire American technology for military modernization. The US Commerce Department imposed sanctions on HMN Tech in December 2021.
In February 2022, SubCom won the contract to build the SeaMeWe-6 cable, and Chinese companies China Telecom and China Mobile were pulled out because the Chinese government would not approve their involvement with SubCom as the cable contractor. The US government claimed to have helped secure the award of the contract for SubCom. The deteriorating US-China relations have resulted in tensions over issues including Ukraine, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Chinese company Huawei Marine Networks, now known as HMN Tech, became the world’s fastest-growing manufacturer and layer of subsea cables, but its short history has been shaped by deteriorating U.S.-China relations.
The US government has disrupted the manufacturing and laying of several undersea cables as part of its wider effort to contain China’s rising power and dominance in advanced technologies. This has cost major US tech companies, including Google, Meta Platforms, and Amazon, millions of dollars in lost revenue and additional costs. The cutting of two communication cables connecting Taiwan with its Matsu islands in February has highlighted the potential for undersea cables to become a battleground between China and Taiwan. The US government has also prevented Google, Amazon, and Meta from landing their planned subsea cables in Hong Kong due to concerns that Chinese spy agencies could intercept data on the cables.
Team Telecom, an interagency committee set up by an executive order signed by former President Trump in April 2020, safeguards US telecommunication networks from spies and cyberattacks. The team is headed by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen and makes cable licensing recommendations to the FCC to prevent any cable from directly connecting US territory with mainland China or Hong Kong due to concerns about Chinese espionage. Since its inception, the team has been instrumental in the cancellation of four cables whose backers had wanted to link the United States with Hong Kong. The US campaign to prevent Chinese access to undersea cables has slowed down the Chinese subsea cable industry. China has delayed giving a license for the Southeast Asia-Japan 2 cable, which Meta is investing in, and China Telecom has been banned from operating in the US due to national security concerns. Team Telecom’s chief, DeBacker, said the risk of China intercepting undersea cables is real and has materialized in the past.
