Tensions between the United States and China are impacting global data flow. Many newly laid undersea cables are being routed around China, indicating an increasing trend of “de-Chinafication” in data centers of global information technology (IT) companies.
Some had previously anticipated that China would serve as a hub for undersea cable networks. However, many planned undersea cable projects are now bypassing China and directly linking to Southeast Asia. The lack of undersea cable projects will hinder the construction of data centers in China.
According to an analysis by Nikkei Asia based on data from the US research firm TeleGeography, after 2026, China has no plans to lay any new undersea cables. The last three cables connecting to Hong Kong will be completed by 2025.
In contrast, next year will see an increase of 7 cables connecting to Singapore, more than double the amount in China. Following this, Singapore will also add 9 cables connecting to Guam, and 4 cables connecting to Japan.
Undersea cables are the backbone of the internet, carrying 99% of global data traffic. According to TeleGeography, approximately 140,000 kilometers of undersea cables will be laid globally in 2024, triple the amount from five years ago. This growth reflects the surge in demand for data due to the popularity of streaming video and cloud services.
On April 10, Google announced a $1 billion project to build two undersea cables connecting Japan, Guam, and Hawaii. When Google made this announcement, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Biden were holding a summit in Washington, DC. The two leaders said in a joint statement that they welcomed this investment to “improve digital communications infrastructure between the United States, Japan, and Pacific island nations.”
Analysts believe that while data consumption in China is increasing, new undersea cable projects are decreasing, reflecting the technological confrontation between the US and China.
Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, told Nikkei Asia that this seemingly coordinated action hides a “subsea cold war” between the US and China.
As the world’s second-largest economy, China is currently consuming a significant amount of data. Since 1994, 15 undersea cables with a total length of over 1,000 kilometers have been fully operational, connecting China to the world. China Mobile and other state-owned enterprises have led these trans-Pacific projects, sometimes in collaboration with American companies.
This trend shifted in 2020 with the Trump administration’s “Clean Network” initiative, which excluded Chinese companies from telecommunications infrastructure projects. Since then, the US has maintained a hardline stance citing the need to ensure data security.
In 2020, the US Department of Justice urged Google and Meta to modify their plan to lay 13,000 kilometers of undersea cables between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Despite being in the final stages, the two tech giants decided to exclude China and limit the destinations to Taiwan and the Philippines.
Projects led by the World Bank in South Pacific island nations for undersea cables also excluded Chinese companies, aligning with US policy.
These coordinated actions have rapidly weakened China’s influence in undersea cable networks. Industry insiders note that US companies play a crucial role in laying cables bypassing China. An official from a cable management company told Nikkei Asia, “These efforts are spearheaded by a few companies like Google.”
From 2021 to 2025, the total length of international undersea cable projects involving US tech giants reached 220,000 kilometers, accounting for 48% of the total number of new projects globally, marking a 15-percentage point increase compared to the previous period.