Submarine Optical Fiber Cable is the main artery of the international internet, carrying about 99% of global intercontinental communication data traffic. This has become a key area of strategic competition between China and the United States.
The United States is the hub for global submarine optical fiber cables, with connections from its east and west coasts to Europe and Asia. Networks from South America also often route through North America, and both the Pacific and Atlantic submarine cables almost always start or pass through the United States. As a result, the US has become the world’s traffic center, with the Europe-US, Asia-US, and Latin America-US routes being the three largest international bandwidth directions, even with the Middle East and Africa needing to connect through Europe to reach the US.
In April 1994, China fully accessed the international internet, becoming the 77th member of the international internet community. However, China has set its sights on the United States and has devised a strategy to compete for global information dominance.
In 2016, authorities introduced the “National Informatization Development Strategic Outline,” proposing the construction of a “cyberpower” by taking “three steps” (time nodes being 2020, 2025, and mid-century), with some goals for the second step to be achieved by 2025, such as achieving 48 Tbps of international internet export bandwidth, establishing four major international information channels connecting the Pacific, Middle East-Europe, West Africa-North Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India-Pakistan-Myanmar-Russia, and fostering a group of large multinational network and information enterprises with strong international competitiveness. In 2017, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, authorities included “Building the Digital Silk Road,” with the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Oceanic Administration’s “Maritime Cooperation Concept of the Belt and Road Initiative” specifically mentioning “promoting joint planning and construction of submarine cable projects to enhance international communication connectivity.” It is believed that most Belt and Road projects are built, financed, and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, leaving many countries vulnerable to debt risks, potentially resulting in a loss of sovereignty and enabling the CCP to project power globally. Submarine cables are a strategic tool for China to challenge the United States.
The submarine cable industry has high technological barriers and great construction difficulties, with only countries like the USA, France, and Japan possessing complete industry chains. The market is dominated by three companies: SubCom (USA), Nokia/ASN (France), and NEC (Japan).
Driven by strategic considerations, China provides massive subsidies and vigorously supports related companies. The core enterprise in this field is Huawei Marine, established in January 2008. Huawei Marine positions itself as a provider of submarine cable communication network construction solutions and is a joint venture between Huawei and the well-known British company Global Marine Systems Limited, with ownership shares of 51% and 49%, respectively. By 2018, Huawei Marine’s global market share exceeded 10%, making it the world’s fourth-largest submarine cable company. Following the US sanctions on Huawei in 2019, Huawei was forced to sell 51% of Huawei Marine’s shares to Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd. In early November 2020, Huawei Marine was renamed Hengtong Marine. Hengtong Optic-Electric has been involved in submarine cable business since 2009, and its orders for submarine cable projects in the international marine market have exceeded 10,000 kilometers. By controlling Hengtong Marine, its strength has greatly increased.
In the international market, Hengtong Marine, through political and business cooperation, especially with the support of the three major state-owned telecom operators (China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom), lowers the manufacturing and laying costs of submarine cables through aggressive pricing strategies to seize market share. According to the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology’s “Global Submarine Cable Industry Development Research Report (2023),” from 2018 to 2022, ASN, SubCom, NEC, and Hengtong Marine accounted for 22%, 12%, 7%, and 23% of the delivered submarine cable systems by quantity, and 29%, 40%, 7%, and 18% by length.
China’s expansion of submarine cables poses a severe challenge to information security for the United States and the world. The US has clearly stated its position: “The continued healthy development of the global internet depends on the free flow of data across borders, relying on trusted telecommunications infrastructure,” and “countries must prioritize national security, data security, and privacy by establishing appropriate policies and regulatory frameworks that comprehensively exclude untrustworthy suppliers, including wireless networks, land and submarine cables, satellites, cloud services, and data centers.”
On August 5, 2020, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the establishment of the “Clean Network” during a press conference. The plan includes: Clean Carrier, Clean Store, Clean Apps, Clean Cloud, and Clean Cable. “Clean Cable” ensures that submarine cables connecting the US to the global internet are not “massively disrupted and monitored for intelligence collection by China.” The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revised cable landing licenses to strengthen investment restrictions, ensuring that hostile countries cannot alter or intercept communication content carried by submarine cables.
In January 2021, despite the change in the US government, the “Clean Cable” policy continued to be implemented. Key enterprises such as Huawei Marine, Jiangsu Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Hengtong Marine Optical Network System, and Zhongtian Submarine Cable were included in the Export Control List. In February and March 2023, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House of Representatives passed the “Submarine Cable Control Act,” explicitly restricting Chinese companies from obtaining technologies and products related to submarine cables, as well as participating in investment and construction of new submarine cable projects.
The US is warning the international community to be vigilant against China’s malicious attacks and espionage activities and is leveraging its advantages, along with allies, to counter China’s expansion in submarine cables. Some successes have been achieved so far. For example, in April 2020, the US Department of Justice rejected including Hong Kong in the trans-Pacific submarine cable network (PLCN) for national security reasons; in 2020, Chile abandoned a Chinese submarine cable construction plan in favor of a Japanese proposal; in 2021, the World Bank canceled the fiber optic cable project connecting three Pacific island nations (Nauru, Micronesia, Kiribati) led by Huawei Marine, making the bidding of Hengtong Marine ineffective; and in 2022, the cooperation partner for the 11,900-kilometer-long Sea-Me-We 6 submarine cable project from Southeast Asia to Europe switched from Huawei Marine to the US supplier, SubCom, at the last minute.
However, China will not abandon its ambition in the field of submarine cables and will find ways to confront the US. For instance, according to the Financial Times in March 2023, China deliberately makes it difficult and delays the approval of licenses to allow foreign companies to lay submarine cables in Chinese territorial waters, forcing companies to bypass and avoid construction in the South China Sea. Additionally, following its exclusion from the Sea-Me-We 6 project, China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom jointly planned a approximately $500 million EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia) project, aiming to connect Hong Kong with Hainan Island, then link Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and France, with Zhengtong Marine responsible for manufacturing and laying the cables, with official subsidies.
According to Chinese data, as of the end of 2023, China has participated in the construction of 24 international submarine cable systems, with a total of 17 active international and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan communication submarine cables, and has purchased or leased over 30 international submarine cables, and has built over 230 communication network nodes overseas. This still falls short of the US’s current status.
However, China’s ambition cannot be underestimated. For example, a semi-official “Global Submarine Cable Industry Development Research Report (2023)” predicts that from 2023 to 2028, the world will build 153 new submarine cable systems with new cable lengths of approximately 770,000 kilometers. It is expected that Chinese enterprises can participate in 77 submarine cable systems with an approximate cable length of 345,000 kilometers, and the market size will reach the billion-dollar level.
While the US currently holds a comprehensive advantage, China is accustomed to waging “unrestricted warfare,” and the competition in submarine cables between the two sides will continue indefinitely.