Francesco Guarascio, Phuong Nguyen, and Joe Brock of Reuters report that subsea cables, which carry much of the world’s data, have become central to the U.S.-Sino tech war. They write:
The United States is urging Vietnam to avoid Chinese cable-laying firm HMN Technologies and other Chinese companies in its plans to build 10 new undersea cables by 2030, sources with knowledge of the talks said.
Vietnam’s five major ageing subsea connections that link it to the global internet have suffered repeated failures, making new cables a top government priority.
Since January, U.S. officials and companies have held at least a half-dozen meetings with Vietnamese and foreign officials and business executives to discuss the Southeast Asian nation’s cable strategy, according to seven people involved in or briefed about the talks. […]
At the same time, subsea cables, which carry much of the world’s data, have become central to the U.S.-Sino tech war and Washington, fearful of espionage by Beijing, has previously successfully lobbied to have HMN Tech excluded from another project, a Reuters investigation showed.
APTelecom, a little-known consultancy, has been part of the talks to persuade Hanoi, five of the people said. The meetings and APTelecom’s role in them have not been previously reported. […]
In April, Vietnam’s state-owned telecommunications firm, Viettel, and Singapore’s Singtel (STEL.SI), announced a plan for a new cable from Southern Vietnam to Singapore that would avoid the large portion of the South China Sea claimed by Beijing.
That cable’s tender has yet to be launched.
“Time will tell” who is winning the race to secure Vietnam’s undersea cable contracts, a Hanoi-based diplomat said.
Read more here.
Also, read A War Beneath the Waves – Trillions of Dollars at Stake, Undersea Cables Are Mysteriously Vanishing, and The Godzilla of Submarine Cables
