Exclusive-Pacific undersea cable project sinks after U.S. warns against Chinese participation
FILE PHOTO: Plane carrying then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo makes its landing approach on Pohnpei International Airport in Kolonia, Federated States of Micronesia August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst reuters tickers
This content was published on June 18, 2021 - 03:43
June 18, 2021 - 03:43
By Jonathan Barrett and Yew Lun Tian
SYDNEY/BEIJING (Reuters) - A World Bank-led project declined to award a contract to lay sensitive undersea communications cables after Pacific island governments heeded U.S. warnings that participation of a Chinese company posed a security threat, two sources told Reuters.
Pacific undersea cable project sinks after US warns against Chinese bid euractiv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from euractiv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Summary
Undersea internet cables are critical infrastructure as important as gas and oil pipelines, and are becoming a focus of growing geopolitical competition.
Throughout the EU’s wider neighbourhood, geopolitics influences states’ decisions about who is allowed to build internet infrastructure and where they can do so.
China and the US differ in their approaches, but both are racing ahead of the EU in their influence over internet infrastructure and the states that depend on it.
The EU has the ambition and potential to become a sovereign digital power, but it lacks an all-encompassing strategy for the sector, in which individual governments are still the key players.
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