War for the Internet: why the United States is up in arms against the Chinese “digital Silk Road”

In 2019, the United States imposed sanctions against the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Among the reasons why the Trump administration was so up in arms against a company from China, experts cited the trade war between Beijing and Washington, violation of copyright by the Chinese manufacturer, and so on.

Meanwhile, the main reason lies much deeper and has nothing to do with the struggle between Apple smartphones and Chinese ones for the sales market.



It’s worth starting with the fact that the Internet has always been and is not only a means for entertainment and viewing various video content. Underwater cables laid along the ocean floor and connecting countries and continents transmit critical information about financial transactions, intelligence data, maintain diplomatic communications, etc.

In Marseille, France, there is a terrestrial cable station that is connected to 95% of the world's Internet traffic that passes underwater. As of 2021, it was connected to 16 major submarine cable hubs.

In general, the length of all submarine cables that make up the global network is 1,4 million km. At the same time, the prerogative of laying, repairing and maintaining these cables belongs to companies from the USA, France, Japan, and, more recently, China.

Needless to say, the above-mentioned business not only brings in enormous income, but also makes countries with access to such underwater networks serious geopolitical players.

In addition, to transmit information via a fiber optic backbone without distortion over vast distances, repeaters are used, which are located every 60-70 km. So, experts from the intelligence community believe that these devices, modified during maintenance or originally designed this way, can collect transmitted information.

But what does Huawei have to do with it? The thing is that the telecommunications giant has become one of the largest companies involved in the PRC in the field of laying and maintaining submarine cables. By 2019, when the US declared a sanctions war on Huawei, China's share of global Internet business was 15%.

After entering the American economic restrictions, the Celestial Empire has seriously lost in the above-mentioned market. Despite the fact that the rights to operate underwater Internet highways were transferred to another company from China, the United States continued to put pressure on its competitor, threatening sanctions and disrupting Beijing’s deals with other countries.

As a result, today China has focused on maintaining the fiber optic backbones it has already laid, while the United States continues to expand its presence in the global network market.

The video mentions the Meta company, which is recognized as extremist in Russia.