How the US is pushing China out of the internet’s plumbing

Nearly 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles) of metal-encased fiber crisscrosses the world’s oceans, speeding internet traffic seamlessly around the globe. The supply and installation of these cables have been dominated by companies from France, the US and Japan. The Chinese government started successfully penetrating the global market, but consecutive US administrations have since managed to freeze China out of large swathes of it. This was ostensibly because of concerns of espionage and worries about what Beijing might do to disrupt strategic assets operated by Chinese companies in the event of a conflict. Despite being routinely blocked from international subsea cable projects involving US investment, Chinese companies have adapted by building international cables for China and many of its allied nations. This has raised fears of a dangerous division in who owns and manages the infrastructure underpinning the global web. But US efforts to exclude Chinese companies from the world’s internet backbone are mired in difficulties. Even as the US administration wages its fiber optic war against Beijing, vessels owned and manned by China are still undertaking complex repair work on US-owned fiber lines, said those with direct knowledge of such operations.