China’s digital silk road: A disaster in making

Grusha Bose: One of the few places on Earth where humans had not significantly impacted was the ocean, but a recent investigation revealed that Chinese development financing institutions had given over $60 billion to 39 low- and middle-income nations for coastal infrastructure projects.

Controlling submarine cables could give a nation leverage in a war, economic advantages as a hub for data flows, and espionage advantages by monitoring on cable traffic. With China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative, rapid coastal development is a mainstay; however there is a paucity of research and regulations addressing the risks of these developments to marine ecosystems, which might potentially cause deterioration of biodiversity and loss of essential ecosystem services when mismanaged.

The Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) fiber-optic cable is one of the DSR’s most ambitious components because it aims to link the larger Middle East, Africa, and Europe with submarine power cables (SPC) in order to increase China’s footprint. Being the operator of the foreign port and landing point for the PEACE fiber-optic cable through a Chinese corporate entity, several ports are now under the control of Beijing. Before coming to an end in Marseille in France, it travels from Karachi (Pakistan) through locations in East Africa, Egypt, and Europe. Also, uncertainties remain, particularly concerning potential ecological consequences of SPC during the phases of installation, repair, recovery and operations on marine ecosystems.

95% of intercontinental data traffic is currently carried by seabed fiber-optic cables. With over 1000 coastline landing points, 380 subsea fiber-optic cables carry data all over the world. A quarter of the world’s undersea cables on selected key geostrategic nations have reportedly been created as intermediate landing spots or repaired by the Chinese company Huawei Marine on purpose, according to the US Federal Communications Commission.

The effects of artificial structures on marine ecosystems, submarine power cables may also have a short- or long-term negative effect on the marine environment due to habitat loss or damage, noise, chemical pollution, heat, electromagnetic field emissions, risk of entanglement, introduction of artificial substrates, and reserve effects.

Also, we need to comprehend how these submerged cables might affect the delicate aquatic species. According to scientists, several sensitive organisms, including anemones, sponges, corals, sea stars, urchins, worms, bivalves, crabs, and other invertebrates that may use artificial structures as refuge, may be harmed by the electromagnetic fields (EMF) produced by submarine power lines. It is also reported that EMF can distort the natural geomagnetic field those marine organisms rely on to navigate, particularly if they swim or drift 10 m near the cables.

Furthermore, experts warn, benthic organisms may be impacted by heat radiation, seabed disturbance, and underwater noise. Elasmobranchs and sensitive marine mammals may be impacted by electromagnetic fields, and sensitive seabirds may be displaced by visual disturbance brought on by cable installation.

Although China currently has major infrastructure assets in geopolitical flashpoints and there is no doubt that authorities are thinking about fibre optics from a range of angles, outside industry; the oversea development finance portfolio of them should be examined by cutting-edge tools like environmental risk screening tool to prevent risks to marine biodiversity while aiding crucial infrastructure projects throughout the world. (IPCSC)

Grusha Bose is a Fellow Researcher & Lead content writer of IPCSC. She graduated from Delhi University in Political Science (Honors). She has a keen interest in writing about Geopolitics. She frequently blogs on International Relations. She can be contacted at [email protected]