Reuters: China is launching a competing underwater communications network.

China's largest telecom firms are working on a $500-million undersea telecommunications cable network aimed at challenging the US' dominance in operating global internet infrastructure. The network, known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), is expected to compete with another cable system currently under construction by US firm SubCom LLC called SeaMeWe-6. Chinese firm HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) was initially selected to manufacture the cable for SeaMeWe-6 by a consortium that included the Chinese telecoms now working on EMA. However, a sustained US pressure campaign that included millions of dollars in "training grants" to foreign telecoms in return for switching their votes ultimately pushed the contract to HMN's US competitor last year. The three Chinese telecoms have reportedly signed agreements with telecoms in France, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, with further deals in the works elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The consortium hopes to bring EMA online by the end of 2025, with the advantages of a faster connection between China, Hong Kong, and the rest of the world not under US control. However, Reuters’ sources fear the plan presages a growing division of global internet infrastructure into a US-led internet and a Chinese-led internet ecosystem. This would make technologies like GPS satellites and online banking much less reliable, and increase the likelihood of those superpowers manipulating and spying on data. Antonia Hmaidi, an analyst with the Mercator Institute for China Studies, agreed that splitting global internet traffic between two superpowers would significantly increase the likelihood of those superpowers manipulating and spying on data, with a general decline in quality and quantity of service until “the whole fabric of the internet doesn’t work as it was intended.”