Chinese state-owned telecom firms are developing a $500 million undersea fiber-optic internet cable network that would link Asia, the Middle East and Europe to rival a similar U.S.-backed project. The cable, known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), would link Hong Kong to China’s island province of Hainan, before snaking its way to Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France. It would be manufactured and laid by China’s HMN Technologies Co Ltd, a fast-growing cable firm whose predecessor company was majority-owned by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, HMN Tech, and Hengtong.
News of the planned cable comes in the wake of a report last month that revealed how the U.S. government has successfully thwarted a number of Chinese undersea cable projects abroad over the past four years. The China-led EMA project is intended to directly rival another cable currently being constructed by U.S. firm SubCom LLC, called SeaMeWe-6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-6). SubCom won the contract last year and, along with China Unicom, began planning the EMA cable. The three state-owned Chinese telecom firms are expected to own more than half of the new network, but they are also striking deals with foreign partners, such as France’s Orange SA, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), Telecom Egypt and Zain Saudi Arabia. The Chinese companies have also held talks with Singapore Telecommunications Limited, a state-controlled firm commonly known as Singtel, while other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are being approached to join the consortium as well. The construction of parallel U.S.- and Chinese-backed cables between Asia and Europe is an early sign that global internet infrastructure, including cables, data centers and mobile phone networks, could become divided over the next decade.
The cable would give China strategic gains in its tussle with the United States, creating a super-fast new connection between Hong Kong, China and much of the rest of the world. The Chinese foreign ministry said the U.S. should stop fabricating and spreading rumours about so-called ‘data surveillance activities’ and stop slandering and smearing Chinese companies.
