{"id":1905721,"date":"2023-03-28T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T04:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-advances-bill-calling-for-strategy-to-defend-retain-control-of-subsea-cables\/"},"modified":"2023-03-28T00:28:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T04:28:07","slug":"house-advances-bill-calling-for-strategy-to-defend-retain-control-of-subsea-cables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-advances-bill-calling-for-strategy-to-defend-retain-control-of-subsea-cables\/","title":{"rendered":"House Advances Bill Calling for Strategy to Defend, Retain Control of Subsea Cables"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-advances-bill-calling-for-strategy-to-defend-retain-control-of-subsea-cables%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1905721&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0328\/6c4e0bca-e861-4c00-90b9-d50b4edd0f05\/audio.mp3?length=7632621&#038;duration=636\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Among the challenges presented by the decade-long military modernization and expansion of\u00a0China\u2019s ruling Communist Party (CCP) is a \u201crobust space program\u201d potentially targeting more than 9,000 American-owned satellites orbiting the Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Space will be a battleground, Pentagon officials have repeatedly warned in Congressional hearings since February regarding President Joe Biden\u2019s $863 billion Fiscal Year 2024 budget request.<\/p>\n<p>Overlooked, some say, by the United States and its allies is another realm the CCP and the Kremlin are preparing to dominate\u2014the planet\u2019s seabeds, where more than 550 active and under-construction fiber-optic cable bundles spanning about 750,000 miles across the world are vulnerable to sabotage and espionage.<\/p>\n<p>These undersea cables, often no wider than a garden hose, carry an estimated 95 percent of the world\u2019s internet traffic, including $10 trillion in daily financial transactions and sensitive military communications.<\/p>\n<p>The full U.S. House of Representatives on March 27 advanced in a two-thirds voice vote a bill that elevates and addresses growing concerns about the security of these undersea cable networks.<\/p>\n<p>HR 1189, The Undersea Cable Control Act, cosponsored by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), seeks to harden underwater networks from Russian sabotage and \u201cto limit China\u2019s economic and military reach to vital undersea cables.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill was fast-tracked to the chamber floor following one hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It now moves onto the Senate, where a companion bill has not been filed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything with China, everything with Communists, is competition\u2014it\u2019s competition against America, competition against our Democratic values, our way of life, the way we operate, the way we pride ourselves on freedom,\u201d Mast said. \u201cI don\u2019t kick well but I\u2019m prepared to kick their ass in anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although 45 minutes was set aside for debate on the bill\u2014which began nearly an hour before originally scheduled\u2014it advanced in less than 10 minutes with only Rep. Susan Wild (R-Pa.) raising to speak favorably on a bill that apparently has overwhelming bipartisan support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cH.R. 1189 is a timely and forward-thinking bill,\u201d Wild said. \u201cThe United States is already engaging in a commercial competition with the PRC to win contracts to build undersea cables and create the technologies that power this vital infrastructure. It is important that the United States government have a proactive strategy to win this critical area of competition with the PRC,\u201d she said, referring to China by its official name, the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n<p>The bill relates to Section 1752 of the Export Control Reform Act, which restricts the export of items deemed potentially detrimental to national security and the economy in an effort to thwart the CCP\u2019s push to dominate the digital cable industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome PRC companies involved in undersea cable development are actively engaged in helping to modernize the Peoples Liberation Army as part of China\u2019s civil-military fusion strategy,\u201d Wild said. \u201cThis raises clear national security concerns that warrant the eyes of export controls to ensure American goods and technology are not contributing to that effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill would \u201cmake the president develop a strategy to eliminate American technologies capable of supporting undersea cables from falling into the hands of our adversaries [and] blocking our adversaries\u2019 ability to develop and perfect undersea capabilities,\u201d Mast said. \u201cIt is a critical step for our own security.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Russia Ready for \u2018Seabed Warfare\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5153478\" style=\"width: 643px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> There are more the 750,000 miles of cyber optic cables tracing the ocean\u2019s floors, including the Atlantic, according to a free and regularly updated \u2018Submarine Cable Map\u2019 published by TeleGeography. a telecommunications market research and consulting firm based in Washington. (Graphic courtesy of TeleGeography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On June 7, 2022, the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 Internet Cable (AAE-1), which traces the seabeds of three oceans for 15,500 miles to link Marseille, France, to Hong Kong, was cut in Egypt for reasons still unknown, leaving millions in seven countries suddenly without access to the internet.<\/p>\n<p>While the temporary disruption was unlikely caused by sabotage, the incident is among those being cited in Europe and North America as examples of how vulnerable subsea cables can be.<\/p>\n<p>A June 2022 European Parliament report estimated that undersea cable networks are cut or damaged by ship traffic, commercial fishing, and natural events such as earthquakes between 150-200 times a year.<\/p>\n<p>A 2021 Center for Strategic &#038; International Studies report documented how a 2008 undersea cable break between Italy and Egypt forced the U.S. military to cut drone flights in Iraq from hundreds daily to about a dozen a day.<\/p>\n<p>France earmarked more than 3 million Euros, or about $3.235 million, for \u201cocean floor defense\u201d in its 2023 defense budget. Italy, India, and Taiwan are also increasing surveillance and security of underwater cables.<\/p>\n<p>The primary sabotage threat identified by U.S. and European intelligence agencies is Russia\u2019s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, which agencies say has been preparing for \u201cseabed warfare\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n<p>The United Kingdom reports Russian submarines routinely patrol along Trans-Atlantic cables and practice dropping submersibles to the ocean floors to target cable networks owned by private companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has, for years, warned about the vulnerability of trans-Atlantic cables, calling it an existential threat to United Kingdom in a 2017 Policy Exchange analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Trans-Atlantic communications cables have been a military target since the first one was laid between Ireland and the United States in 1857-58.<\/p>\n<p>During World War 1, Britain cut all but one of Germany\u2019s undersea telegraph cables in the English Channel, tapping the remaining line to read messages. In 1918, a German U-boat severed links between New York and Nova Scotia, and New York and Panama.<\/p>\n<p>During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy\u2019s \u201cOperation Ivy Bells\u201d tapped cables around the Soviet Union\u2019s Pacific fleet base in Vladivostok for more than a decade before the espionage was discovered in 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Among ways the United States, United Kingdom, and Western European nations have countered any sabotage threats is through redundancy: so many TransAtlantic cables link the continents, it would be difficult to completely shut down communications.<\/p>\n<p>But the CCP presents additional threats beyond sabotage, and it is those challenges that are primarily addressed in The Undersea Cable Control Act, which seeks to \u201climit China\u2019s economic and military reach to vital undersea cables.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Countering CCP Control, Espionage<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3208147\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> China Mobile Communications Group Co., a CCP state-owned company, is among Chinese companies aggressively seeking to eclipse the U.S. in undersea cable development. (Daniel Sorabji\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although the CCP also presents a sabotage threat\u2014especially along the 12,500-mile Asia-America Gateway (AAG) seabed cable network\u2014U.S. and western intelligence agencies say the regime is advanced in its espionage efforts and is actively seeking to dominate the cable-building industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn recent years,\u201d Mast said, \u201cChinese companies\u2014heavily subsidized, of course, by the PRC\u2014have started investing heavily in owning and supplying subsea cables.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CCP is investing heavily in the global fiber-optic cable sector beyond the Pacific, particularity in \u201ctechno-diplomacy\u201d overtures in Africa, South America, and increasingly, Central America.<\/p>\n<p>With Chinese companies participating in undersea cable projects worldwide, the CCP is also insisting it will control all seabed development in the South China Sea as part of its territorial claims, which are challenged by surrounding nations and the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The CCP, for more than a year, hampered Meta Platforms Inc.\u2019s SJC2 seabed cable project linking Japan with Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, until it could gain an element of administrative authority by requiring a partnership with China Mobile Communications Group Co., a CCP state-owned company.<\/p>\n<p>The CCP\u2019s investment and strategy has created, according to intelligence agencies, the potential for a \u201cnightmare scenario\u201d of cable networks being monitored and accessed by the CCP due to its owning \u201cadministrative rights\u201d to network management systems. There is also risk of the network surreptitiously being hijacked by CCP hackers to disrupt or divert data, or agents pulling networks\u2019 plugs via a \u201ckill click\u201d that could isolate or blind a potential adversary.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than destroying networks, the CCP appears more invested in developing proficiency in tapping into them to record, copy, and steal data by dominating the cable manufacturing process and installing seamless, hidden \u201cback door\u201d access to the flow of information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not just an economic issue,\u201d Mast said. \u201cThe Chinese, they will steal information. They will make it insecure. They want our transmissions. They weaponize all forms of telecommunications that they can. They try to make these capabilities fit their own nefarious ends. So, do we really think for a second they would not do that with undersea cables?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mast said the United States must thwart the CCP\u2019s efforts to control the fiber-optic cable industry.<\/p>\n<p>In introducing the bill, he asked, \u201cWhy on earth would we want China to control one of the most powerful communications tools on the planet?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Allowing the CCP to control the cyber-optics cable industry would be akin to allowing the Soviet Union during the Cold War \u201cto buy up radio component companies in the United States and other places,\u201d Mast said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat would that have been like? What kind of danger would have been seen?\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s how you look at this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among the challenges presented by the decade-long military modernization and expansion of\u00a0China\u2019s ruling Communist Party (CCP) is a \u201crobust space program\u201d potentially targeting more than 9,000 American-owned satellites orbiting the Earth. Space will be a battleground, Pentagon officials have repeatedly warned in Congressional hearings since February regarding President Joe Biden\u2019s $863 billion Fiscal Year 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":1905722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6173,21230,4206,4154,7901,3653,22891,4158,22890],"class_list":["post-1905721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-advances","tag-cables","tag-calling","tag-control","tag-defend","tag-house","tag-retain","tag-strategy","tag-subsea"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1905722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}