Slashdot Mirror
Trans-Pacific Cable Plans Mired In US-China Geopolitical Rivalry
An anonymous reader writes "Attempts to build a new telecommunications cable between the US, New Zealand and Australia have become a nexus for the growing rivalry between the U.S. and China in the Pacific. The U.S. is reportedly creating a technology ring fence to match its military one and contain China's ambitions in the Pacific. The U.S. military could even help pay for any planned new cable to link its bases in American Samoa with its expanding military presence in Australia's Northern Territory. It has been made 'very clear' U.S. authorities would not allow significant Chinese investment in one cable project and it followed that they would not tolerate the use of Chinese gear in its construction. 'It was made very clear. These are cables connecting whole countries. These are very political things,' one insider said."
The only country that has thus far been able to check the United States' unmitigated love of bombing people has been Russia. 'Murica wanted to bomb Syria. Russia came in and said "We'll take those chemical weapons off your hands, then 'Murica has no reason to bomb you." ... Suddenly, Syria looks rational, Russia looks peaceful, and America looks like the playground bully kicking sand in everyone's faces. Naturally, this didn't go over very well with the war hawks in Congress... but to date, no bombs have dropped.
China needs someone in their corner with nuclear weapons. Either that, or develop their own. America does not play well with others; They only back down and act reasonable when there's a risk of total and immediate thermonuclear destruction of the planet... anything conventional and it's bombs-away! I only wish I were joking. China has already taken the first steps -- realizing that America can't be handled conventionally. They've started developing their economy and cyberwarfare resources at a pace that exceeds America's, and the disparity is growing measurably every few months. It will only be a decade at most before they're left eating the dust of China as it rises to become a global economic superpower.
America is looking at undersea cables and going; If we can delay this a bit somehow... it'll slow 'em down. Their policies towards china have become very much about delaying and frustrating them, because stopping them isn't an option anymore. There's billions of chinese, and only millions of Americans. But stubborn nationalistic pride is keeping both sides from finding a mutually-acceptable middle ground. Unfortunately for America... they're rapidly losing their position at the bargaining table. They may not have a chair in a few more years at the rate China is developing.
And I think that, more than anything, is what is driving behavior like this. Worrying about the Chinese spying on everyone and putting backdoors in telecom equipment is a pretty pitiful excuse when America has been pants'd internationally over the exact same thing recently, and new examples are being made public weekly. And China isn't running around hunting down its ex-pats in Russian airports when its citizens come forward and say what its government is up to. They just stare blankly into the camera and then say "We make you iphone! iPhone good! You want more iphones? Shut up." ... and that's the end of it. -_-
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