At a Time when the United States and China are competing for dominance of the world’s digital infrastructure, the “Peace” submarine cable, which winds its way from China to Pakistan overland and then under the sea for about 7,500 miles (12,070 kilometers), passing through the “Horn of Africa” and landing in France, has drawn Europe into the U.S.-China tug-of-war over digital infrastructure. Submarine cable, let Europe involved in the United States and China this tug-of-war, become a new point of conflict in the network geopolitics.
“Bloomberg” reported on the 5th, by the Chinese company involved in laying the “peace” submarine cable, is expected to be completed later this year, the cable can transmit data per second, enough to play 90,000 hours of “Netflix “(Netflix) films per second, mostly used to improve the speed of Chinese companies in Europe, Africa’s services.
Jean-Luc Vuillemin, head of the international network business of Orange SA, France’s largest telecommunications provider, which will operate the Marseille landing point of the “Peace” submarine cable in France, said. “This is a projection of strength, from China to Europe and Africa”.
The “Peace” submarine cable also represents a new point of conflict in network geopolitics: the third largest shareholder of China’s Hengtong Group, which is involved in laying the cable, is at the center of the U.S.-China digital infrastructure wars: huawei, which is also providing the equipment needed for the submarine cable’s submarine transmission and landing stations.
The landing station is seen as the easiest part of the cable to wiretap, including the implantation of a “back door” when it is built. Robert Spalding, a retired U.S. Army general and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, said that as long as you have information transmitted through their switches and cables, there is always the risk of being redirected and eavesdropped on. “It’s common sense”.
Internet community leader Google parent company “letters” company and “Facebook” the two major U.S. companies have said, because there is sufficient capacity transmission cable, will not use the “peace “Submarine cable.
Submarine cable has significant strategic importance, the current global network data, communication transmission volume of about 98% through about 400 submarine cable, many of these submarine cable owned and operated by U.S. companies, to consolidate U.S. network dominance to help, but also enhance the U.S. and its allies on the submarine cable was damaged or eavesdropping security concerns. Last year, then-Secretary of State Pompeo called on the international community to “ensure that the submarine cables connecting our nation to the global Internet are not endangered by Chinese intelligence-gathering operations.
The sources pointed out that the United States is intensifying pressure on France over the “peace” submarine cable, but France is prepared to resist U.S. pressure and may appease the United States by limiting the transmission of specific types of data from the cable.
In a visit to the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank, Macron said last month that the French government does not want to exclude China from France’s network infrastructure, partly so that France would not “have to rely entirely on U.S. decisions. “German Chancellor Angela Merkel also explicitly refused to exclude China from the network infrastructure at a press conference with Macron on Feb. 5, saying she did not believe that decoupling from China “is the right way to go, especially in this digital age.
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), an independent Indian think tank, and the Center for Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands estimate that China will account for 11.4 percent of the landing points, owners or suppliers of submarine cables worldwide by 2019, rising to 20 percent by 2025 and 2030.
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