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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."
China is building a cable across the Pacific, and American firms want to invest and use their equipment. Suddenly it sounds rational to disallow foreigners. How's that work?
I get the idea that Americans just aren't allowed to do anything that's in their national interest. If the Chinese government (and that's what state-owned enterprises means) wants to invest and install their own equipment, then the Americans must allow them! The Chinese will install spyware on the cable? Oh, boo hoo you Americans will just have to take it because you're bad people and hurt puppies!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
hey dumbass ... every space faring nation (china is one) has a delivery mechanism.
Of course they need to lay NSA tapped cables.
Exactly.
This is nothing to do with politics, just practicality.
The NSA knows well just how much stuff can be gleaned from an under sea cable, so why would they want anyone else putting their equipment in place to tap into later? Too many taps spoils the surprise.
When the US worries about Chinese routers and switches it is most likely that someone in government already has "un-detectable" back doors into US made switches, routers and software. When they worry and bluster in congress about Chinese Cellular transmitter equipment it is likely because they already have all the other manufacturers compromised.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Until somebody develops the ability to nuke all it's enemies globally instantly, and synchronized down to the second globally, there's no point in signing such an agreement as MAD pretty much ensures that nobody is going to be using nuclear weapons.
Consequently, that treaty was just an effort to bolster China's image on the world stage. If there were really any purpose to such a treaty, it would have been signed a long time ago.
So you run around telling the world you will use them only in defense AND wont sign a NFU as it "limits options"
What's so hard to understand about that? NATO will only use nukes in defense. That includes defending against chemical or biological attacks, for example. Signing on to a NFU treaty would take away that option.
> Trust me the Americans are the enemy of the free world.
And China isn't?
Oh indeed, the United Kingdom does not exist.
Not in any meaningful sense, anyway.
I miss the Cold War, when there were competing systems instead of a race to the bottom.
Are you referring to the US Congress or the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
America: Also #1 in forgetting other countries exist.
The US, certainly. In China, Snowden would have been hunted down by internal security, given a quiet trial, and executed shortly thereafter and his organs harvested. In America not only was Snowden able to escape due to not having to go to a government office and get an exit visa for his passport (documenting where you're going, when, for how long, and showing airline tickets and hotel reservations, then the government will allow you to leave) but he was soundly cheered by many Americans.
As a Westerner who has been in China for years now and speaks Mandarin, people only like China because they reflexively hate America and either don't know anything about China or project their wants and desires on China. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know."
You can shame America into doing things...what just happened in Syria? China just doesn't care unless you're Chinese. And even then, it's a stretch.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!