Google and Facebook ditch plan to connect Los Angeles to Hong Kong via cable, due to national security concerns

Nearly 13,000 kilometres of the underwater cable has already been laid

A technician passes by a logo of US internet search giant Google during the opening day of a new Berlin office of Google (AFP via Getty)

A plan to connect Los Angeles and Hong Kong via an underwater data cable has been scrapped due to concerns from the US government that the Chinese government could siphon information from it.

The Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), which was partly owned by Facebook and Google, will now only operate between the United States, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to documents submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Nearly 13,000 kilometres of the underwater cable had already been laid since the plans were announced in 2016, but it required permission from the FCC to operate.

Three firms share ownership of the cable network. Google owns one fiber pair with a branch to Taiwan, and Facebook owns another pair with branches to the Philippines.

Hong Kong company Pacific Light Data Co (PLDC) owns all of the remaining pairs and acts as the landing party in Hong Kong, and is a subsidiary of Dr Peng Group.

It was expected to handle 120 terabytes of data per second between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, which Google claimed was enough for 80 million high-definition conference calls.

"We can confirm that the original application for the PLCN cable system has been withdrawn, and a revised application for the US-Taiwan and US-Philippines portions of the system has been submitted,“ a spokesperson for Google told the BBC.

“We continue to work through established channels to obtain cable landing licenses for our undersea cables.”

The decision is not unexpected. A US government committee recommended to the FCC in June that the cable should not connect to Hong Kong, citing concerns about the involvement of Chinese company Dr. Peng Telecom.

The committee’s claimed that the Chinese government would seek to acquire the personal data of millions of US citizens through digital infrastructure, as well as arguing that Dr. Peng Telecom would be obligated to work with the Chinese government under its intelligence and cybersecurity laws.

The committee also said that allowing the data cable to connect to Hong Kong would further the Chinese government’s aim that “Hong Kong be the dominant hub in the Asia Pacific region for global information and communications technology and services infrastructure.”

“The Committee’s recommendation specified that it was not in U.S. national security or law enforcement interests to approve subsea cables landing in PRC [People’s Republic of China] territory when the PRC government has previously demonstrated the intent to acquire US persons’ data”, it concluded.

The Independent has reached out to Dr Peng Group for comment.

FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks tweeted at the end of August that the “cables are critical to our interconnected future and must be protected” and that the FCC “must ensure that our telecom traffic is safe & secure”.