News JVTech China loses to the United States and France for the Internet with diplomatic pressure, a story of espionage
Here is a story worthy of a movie where the United States is waging a diplomatic battle against China for control of the Internet. A war involving espionage and pressure at all levels.
China loses contract to France and USA
Reuters agency
conducted the investigation and tells for the first time the underside of the negotiations for one of the most important submarine cables. Linking Singapore to Marseille, the cable named SeaMeWe-6 also passes through India, Africa and the Middle East. A very strategic connection that the United States wanted to control, even if it does not pass through American territories at all. Despite everything, Washington entered the negotiations when a Chinese company already had the contract. The alliance between Microsoft and Orange thus won the call for tenders after diplomatic pressure.
In early 2020, HMN, a former Huawei company, was selected for this pharaonic contract. With a proposal a third lower than that of the American group SubCom, the choice was obvious. Especially since Beijing provided subsidies to achieve a tariff of $500 million. Except that Washington did not intend to let HMN, a consortium of a dozen Chinese companies won the tender.
A project financed by Chinese companies and the Chinese government was impossible in the eyes of the United States. From the first signs of the loss of the contract by SubCom, Washington entered the negotiations with more than dubious methods. The big fear was that China would install a spy device. As a reminder, 95% of your Internet traffic international network goes through submarine optical cables, the stakes are colossal.
Everything is allowed to win the contract!
The cable linking Singapore to France has thus become after 2020 a subject that has crystallized many tensions. Washington has only one solution to tip the scales in favor of the Franco-American alliance: exert pressure.
And to put pressure, there is the use of the stick or the carrot. So either threats of sanctions or various incentives. The White House appears to have used both methods to achieve its ends according to Reuters information. This lobbying project is known internally as Team Telecom.
Let’s start on the positive with a potential scholarship offer worth a total of 3.8 million dollars to five companies on the cable route. In exchange, they undertake to choose SubCom. None of the companies involved would respond to questions from Reuters, so this is all speculative.
If the incentives were not sufficient, it was still necessary to recall American power. Voting companies have therefore potentially been threatened by US diplomats that their investment in this cable will be wiped out if Washington imposes sanctions on HMN. In 2021, moreover, the US Department of Commerce began sanctions against the company claiming that it was trying to acquire American technologies for the benefit of the Chinese army. A senior official who remains anonymous told Reuters:
The department had advocated, through its embassies, to help SubCom win the contract, including warning other countries of the security risks posed by HMN Tech. Although the cable does not land in Chinese territory, the US government believes that HMN Tech may insert remote monitoring equipment inside the cable
US victory over China
And now, a few months later, when the contract initially left for HMN, the seesaw was reversed and for a cost of 100 million dollars more, won by the Franco-American alliance.
Orange thus congratulated itself in February 2022
to be part of this consortium. This places him as one of the world leaders, with more than 40 submarine optical cables, out of the 400 existing. This also places France as a key player in Internet distribution.
Marseille in particular became 5th place
importance of optical cables.
