Is the Digital Silk Road a New Area of Geostrategic Competition?
Pointing out that China has taken steps to increase its influence and authority in countries such as Pakistan, Djibouti and Egypt, which are under the hegemony of the USA, with the Digital Silk Road and PEACE network, Blaubach said that these critical data transit points are the global economic impact of the USA, China and other countries. It seems that it has gained a strategic importance that could threaten its interests.
The USA sees China's gaining control in this area, as in the 5G network infrastructure, as worrying in terms of national security and communication security. The assumption that the country controlling the networks will have the ability to monitor, block and redirect communications to other channels has made the critical communications infrastructure the new arena of geostrategic competition between the two great powers.
In his article published on March 7, Thomas Blaubach, a researcher from the Middle East Institute headquartered in Washington, pointed out the two countries' efforts to influence the regions at the intersection of the project.
Pointing out that China has taken steps to increase its influence and authority in countries such as Pakistan, Djibouti and Egypt, which are under the hegemony of the USA, with the Digital Silk Road and PEACE network, Blaubach said that these critical data transit points are the global economic impact of the USA, China and other countries. He expressed the opinion that it has gained strategic importance that could threaten its interests.
Pakistan, the starting point of China's infrastructure project, is a US ally and is one of the countries in which Beijing has invested heavily in recent years with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects within the scope of the Belt and Road Initiative. Gwadar Port in the west of the country is an important trade base of China in the region.
The cables you see on the map below are under-ocean (and under-sea) cables that carry the internet between continents. New York University professor Dr. In her book titled Submarine Network, where Nicole Starosielski discusses these cables, the technology behind them, and their economic and strategic importance, she states that 99% of all intercontinental internet data flow in the world is provided through these cables, not satellites.
On the other hand, Djibouti, located at the heart of the narrowing point where the Arabian Sea connects to the Red Sea, became the first country where China established an overseas military base. The debts Djibouti, where the USA also has a military base, received from China for the Belt and Road Initiative projects have reached 75 percent of its gross domestic product. Analysts see it as possible that economic dependence on China will bring the country strategically closer to Beijing over time.
The Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and Egypt, which is in the most critical position for fiber optic networks to reach Europe with land transmission facilities, are also witnessing the struggle for influence between the two great powers. Egypt's economic relations with China, which is the most important ally of the USA in the Middle East and among the top four countries that receive the most American aid in the world, have gradually developed in recent years. Beijing has become Egypt's largest trading partner and the most important investor in infrastructure projects. The permissive attitude of the Chinese administration in the field of human rights and the fact that it does not put forward this issue as a condition in economic relations brings the government led by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi closer to China than the USA.
According to Blaubach, China's contributions to digital infrastructure, businesses, and technical workforce training in these critical countries on the data transit lines of the Middle East and Africa may lead to the United States losing its influence over these countries as they adapt more to the digital economy. In addition, it is considered that the USA's shifting of strategic priority to the Indo-Pacific region in the competition with China may cause countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Djibouti, which are at the critical transfer point of global waterways as well as digital data routes, to enter Beijing's orbit.
https://twitter.com/geographicca/status/1442544202580119555
Link: An animation showing undersea fiber optic communication cables around the world.
The first submarine communication cables were laid in the 1850s for telegraph purposes. In 1858, the first cable between Europe and America (Cork – Newfoundland) was laid in the Atlantic Ocean, and the telegraph reduced communication between the two continents to less than a day.
On the map, we can also see several cables passing through Turkey. One of them is the network called KAFOS. The network starts from Mangalya, Romania, and ends in Istanbul, and Türk Telekom owns some of the shares of the network.
MedNautilus Submarine System, which progresses along the Marmara Sea and bifurcates from the Aegean Sea and spreads to all points of the Mediterranean, is also an important network in our country. The points reached by this network include Istanbul, Athens (Greece), Catania (Italy), Chania (Greece), Haifa (Israel), Pentaskhinos (Cyprus) and Tel Aviv (Israel). Others of the networks reaching our country are Turckyos-1 (between Kyrenia and Mersin), SeaMeWe-3 (a huge network extending from the Netherlands to South Korea and Australia) and finally, Turckyos-2 (between Samandağ and Cyprus).
Conclusion
On March 1, 2024, one of the German officers broadcast on Rossiya Segodnya Media Group and Russia Today (RT) television made his meeting with Germany by connecting from Singapore, where these fiber optic lines are located. Nor did he use the secure and presumably encrypted WebEx platform.
Acceleration in digital industrial development includes the improvement of financial, transportation and manufacturing sectors, public projects and other sectors; It also enables changes in lifestyles and production styles.
New technologies based on information and communication technologies such as Cloud Computing, big data and artificial intelligence are becoming an important factor in the economic growth of countries and the digital transformation of the sector.
According to the "Global Connectivity Index (GCI) Research Report for 2017" published by Huawei Company, the development of the digital economy worldwide is accelerating.
The total GCI score increased by 4 points compared to the 2015 value. This result shows that information and communication technologies have become an important engine of economic growth.
Every US dollar invested in information and communication technologies returns 3 dollars to the country's GDP. By 2025, every dollar invested in information and communication technologies will return 5 dollars.
The fact that no company acts on its own in the digital transformation process has made it necessary for countries to take part in a new eco-digital transformation collectively in order to achieve collective success.
The geostrategic and technological competition between the world's two largest economies, the USA and China, is also reflected in rival proposals and projects for the establishment of intercontinental fiber optic internet networks.
Washington is trying to control the internet networks connecting Asia and Europe with the "Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe 6" (SEA-ME-WE 6) project against China's "Pakistan-East Africa-Europe Connection" (PEACE) project. is in search of.
The Chinese state has signaled that it will be on Russia's side in the mutual struggle between Russia and the USA-NATO in Ukraine. Presumably, it also shares the intelligence information obtained on this subject with Russia.
In addition to the information I have provided in my articles published on the STRASAM website (Gaza and beyond 1 – 8); The USA and Israel want to control world trade lines and oil trade.
In order to digitally control the world with the main theme of "One World, One Family, One Future", they also need control of the digital bus, that is, fiber optic lines, right next to Gaza.
It is obvious that the state or states that control the Fiber Optic lines passing through the Gaza and Suez region will also control the communication of the whole world.
It has been revealed what the world's largest wiretapping facility built in Israel will be used for.
It should not be forgotten that open communications and discussions in Turkey can be published in the media at any time.
Strategically, Cyprus is another control point of digital communication in the Mediterranean.
References
1. http://ankaenstitusu.com/cin-ve-ipek-yolu-1/
3. https://www.huawei.com/tr/events/tr/huawei_dijital_ipek_yolunun_ipuclarini_verecek
4. https://twitter.com/geographicca/status/1442544202580119555
