Futile US efforts to exclude China from cable projects

The United States has drafted a "New York Joint Statement" that it plans to sign with its European allies on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly from Sunday to Wednesday, the aim of which is to promote "reliable and trusted cable components and services" and "encourage undersea cable network service providers and operations and maintenance providers to have transparent ownership, partnerships, and corporate governance structures". Many see that as a move to edge Chinese businesses out of the global undersea cable supply chain.

International submarine cables are the most important information carriers for contemporary global communication. In fact, 99 percent of international data is believed to pass through such cables. Yet there has never been a case of China being involved in any international submarine cable network sabotage. On the contrary, it was the US that sent sailors and marines to cut submarine telegraph cables between Spain and the Philippines and Cuba to secure its victory in the US' 1898 war with Spain. Reportedly, 51 of the 112 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded in the Spanish–American War went to those who cut the cables.

The US has mastered the art of stealing data from undersea cables since the 1990s. The Seawolf-class nuclear powered submarines designed in 1983 and first deployed in 1997 can intercept data in undersea cables, while according to a US media report, the USS Jimmy Carter, a typical ship of the Seawolf-class, can "float above these fiber-optic cables installed on the seafloor and physically cut into them, intercepting the vast data streams rushing through them".

So, for the US to raise undersea cable security issues and to try and extend its concept of "small yard, high fence" to the submarine cable sector by suppressing Chinese enterprises and Chinese technologies in the name of national security is a classic case of a "thief crying stop thief". Maybe they want to drive Chinese companies out of the market so that their Seawolf-class vessels can intercept global data at will?

The US wants to deprive countries, especially developing ones, of the right to develop the submarine cable industry and independently choose submarine cable suppliers. China strongly opposes the move and will resolutely defend the legitimate and lawful rights of Chinese enterprises. The unilateral hegemonic actions of the US will fail.

— ZHANG ZHOUXIANG, CHINA DAILY