Wait, some guys thought there was going to be repeat business selling an undersea cable cutting device and they went to the trouble of patenting it?
How many people are in the business of maliciously cutting these cables indiscriminately, it feels like this device is more of a build it and sell on the shady/black market kind of deal.
Seems like general military-industrial-complex stuff. In the initial phase of an open war, say against an island nation that totally has always been your territory, you could quite openly want to cut cables, and the patents kinda protect against another company being the one that profits from a new method of doing so. (I have no idea if the Chinese government actually respects patents by companies within it.)
Cutting an undersea cable that one or multiple countries spent millions or billions on seems like a really good way to piss off a lot of people really quickly.
Considering how dependent on the internet our economies are, intentionally cutting an undersea cable should be considered an act of war.
Sabotaging a countries energy or water supply are. I’m pretty sure cutting telecommunications cables would have been prior to the internet. How it’s this any different?
It’s like 30 years ago when my parents used the landline in the middle of a download - an act of war.
I would assume most nations would treat this the same as them bombing a radio tower in the 40s. Absolutely an act of war.
If nukes didn’t exist you can bet your butts that most of these countries would not be playing around like this. The only reason they could even think doing that might be a good idea is because they know that nobody wants to kick off nuclear war. Still just seems like an unnecessary bear to poke if you ask me.
Sure, but when you’re in the economic position that China is you can get away with that… although, they do you usually like to operate with plausible deniability, and this seems to cause problems for that.
Still though, China’s typical response when they get called on their bullshit is “fuck you, do something about it”.
Still though, China’s typical response when they get called on their bullshit is “fuck you, do something about it”.
Not defending China in any way, but that’s the response used by most powerful countries.
When you’re rich they let you do it …
This is part of it, but it’s more than that. A lot of countries are dependent on China as a supplier, and a buyer. It’s… problematic to publicly criticize your primary source of steel.
What do they even get out of cutting these cables? How does this benefit china in any way?
Cutting a cable costs you just a few tens of thousand dollars while fixing a cable costs millions. If you can just claim it’s ‘just an accident’, you can basically do it without consequence.
It also forces internet and possibly military communications to reroute, possibly over channels that can be intercepted.
It might also let you install a tap elsewhere on the cable without causing an obvious interruption. If it’s already cut, your tapping won’t be noticed. And if you see slightly worse signal quality when it’s repaired… well that’s probably just due to the quality of the repair work, I’m sure.
I am certainly not one of those PRC defenders around these parts, but if you don’t think Western countries have similar technology you are absolutely kidding yourself.
Now, messaging is important. So the question I’d ask is, was this one just an opportunistic discovery or a veiled threat?
