Another submarine fiber optic cable project involving Chinese companies was cancelled

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has learned that the Pacific submarine fiber optic cable tender project involving Japanese, French and Chinese companies has been declared invalid. Chinese companies bid for the project at the cheapest price, but Japan, the U.S. and Australia pointed out problems with safety and security. In addition, plans for a U.S. Facebook link between the United States and Hong Kong via an undersea cable were forced to be canceled. Friction between the U.S. and China is casting a shadow over the construction of the world’s communications infrastructure.

The invalidated tender was a plan to connect the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and Nauru using fiber optic cables. a consortium of communications operators from the three countries was the owner, with financial support from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

World Bank information indicates that the total investment is US$54.45 million. The tender for the project was implemented by May 2020, with bids from Japan’s NEC, France’s Alcatel Submarine Networks and China’s Huahai Communication Technology. Huahai Communication Technology offered the lowest price and had been considered the most likely to win the order.

In late February, the three countries notified the three companies that “the project bidding is invalid”. In an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, HASCO Technologies said that it regretted the cancellation.

Huahai Communication Technology was originally a subsidiary of China’s huawei Technologies, which was targeted by U.S. sanctions. Today it is part of the Chinese telecommunications company Jiangsu Hengtong Optoelectronics.

The competing communications security has also had an impact on private projects. Facebook has cancelled its application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a joint project with a Chinese company to build a fiber optic cable linking California and Hong Kong. The public relations chief said “the U.S. government has expressed concern” and said “it will be redesigned in a form that responds to the government’s concerns.