Europe is in the middle of a tech war between the U.S. and China

An underwater cable will be created later this year near a popular sunbathing spot in the French port of Marseille. The cable, known as the Peace cable, will be created by China and will travel overland from China to Pakistan, where it heads underwater for about 7,500 miles via Africa before terminating in France.

The Peace cable will be built by Chinese companies and will be able to transport enough data in one second. Peace will enable China to project power beyond China's mainland toward Europe and Africa. The underwater cable represents a new point in the geopolitics of the internet. However, China’s decision was not taken lightly by the U.S as it currently has dominance over underwater cables and internet traffic.

Currently, some 400 of these underwater cables carry 98% of international data and telephone traffic around the world. Many of these cables are owned and operated by U.S. companies, reinforcing U.S. dominance over the internet. The U.S. has expressed concerns with the international community over the Chinese underwater internet cable stating that it may be used for intelligence purposes by the People’s Republic of China.

However, the French president doesn’t want to isolate China from internet infrastructure, so France would not have to fully depend on U.S. decisions. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, also objected efforts to isolate China in a conference with President Macron on February 5th.

In the U.S., Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., and Facebook Inc. will not be using Peace because they have enough capacity. Even if they wanted to, it would be hard for these companies to do so because of a U.S.-led boycott of many Chinese telecommunications equipment makers. That includes Huawei Technologies Co., which is a major shareholder in Hengtong Optic-Electric Co. – the company that is building the Peace cable.

References:

1) Fouquet, H. (2021, March 05). Bloomberg.com. Retrieved March 07, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/china-s-peace-cable-in-europe-raises-tensions-with-the-u-s