China's $500M Subsea Internet Cable to Challenge US-backed Project.

Chinese state-owned telecom firms are developing a $500 million undersea fiber-optic internet cable network, known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), that would link Asia, the Middle East and Europe to rival a similar U.S.-backed project. The cable would be manufactured and laid by China’s HMN Technologies Co Ltd and would be subsidized by the Chinese state. Undersea cables carry more than 95% of all international internet traffic and have become weapons of influence in an escalating competition between the United States and China.