China builds 'free trade data port' inclusive of submarine cable landing station
- Reference: 1641955744
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/12/china_data_port/
- Source link:
Known as the Nansha International Data Free Trade Port, the project basically involves plumbing in a series of undersea cables and network links, building a data center for handling cross-border data, and constructing industrial parks and labs for AI development, telecommunications, and more.
Construction of this 450-acre site is due to start in the first half of 2022 and be in operation by the end of 2025. The aim is to control the data flowing in and out of China.
[1]
"The Nansha International Data Free Trade Port project is to deploy a submarine cable landing station, a master control center, and a core transmission node in Nansha District by connecting multiple integrated networks of global submarine cables invested and constructed by AVIC Cloud Holdings, and at the same time realizes the first cross-border operation in China," [2]said [mobile only] Nanfang Daily.
[3]China puts Walmart in the naughty corner, citing 19 alleged cybersecurity 'violations'
[4]Technology can sometimes go from east to west: Ubuntu DDE 21.10 remix ships in 22.01
[5]US Army journal's top paper from 2021 says Taiwan should destroy TSMC if China invades
[6]Intel ‘regrets’ offending China with letter telling suppliers to avoid Xinjiang
China has historically sought rigid control when it comes to cross-border data flow. For example, the nation has applied [7]close scrutiny to companies that list and send data offshore over infosec concerns and [8]required that any "core" data leaving China first seek approvals.
China did, however, [9]apply for entry recently into a Digital Economy Partnership Agreement with New Zealand and Singapore, an agreement that would require China to allow free flow of information. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yd5gdl@-3vanNu6P6-gSNAAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://epaper.southcn.com/m/ipaper/nfrb/html/2022-01/07/content_379.htm
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/walmart_china_security/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/07/ubuntu_dde_2110/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/05/taiwan_should_destory_tsmc_paper/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/23/intel_regrets_offending_china_with_xianjing_opinion/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/china_securities_security_crackdown/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/china_data_protection_law_taxonomies/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/02/china_free_trade/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
What does that even mean?
"realizes the first cross-border operation in China"
It's (obviously) not the first international submarine cable entering China, what border is it crossing, and why is it different? Nansha is in the middle of the Pearl River delta, and from the link Hong Kong and Macao are involved. These big statements often leave me wondering, has something been lost in the translation, or is it purely PR hype?
Entirely unjustified speculation... does "cross-border" refer to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? Perhaps this is the first international cable terminating at a shared data centre? So international traffic to Hong Kong and Macao can pass through the same data centre... and be subject to the same inspection as Mainland traffic. Is this the extension of the Great Firewall to protect Hong Kong and Macao too?
How convenient, to have a single point which all approved data can flow through.
Not bloody likely...
They have a "Great Firewall" & aren't afraid to use it. There is no way they will allow an uncensored, unfiltered, free flow of information to cross their borders & thus be available to their citizens. The government & ruling elites would never withstand the cultural backlash from uncensored history becoming available to their citizens.
Tienamin(sp) Square, Winney the Pooh, boy bands, "culturally inappropriate" issues that the government absolutely does not want their citizens to know. How non-dictatorships function & allow their citizens to live, goods & services & information & opportunities that the "barbarians" get to enjoy but the "vaunted" Chinese citizens do not.
I know they won't let their citizens to leave the country, so the trickle of folks to the nearest foreign embassy might just turn into a flood of folks seeking political/religious asylum & a quick exit out under the cover of an international flight on some other country's private jet.
And you just know that any data sent over such Chinese government controlled cables will be copied to Chinese servers, data mined for every nugget of PayData they can glean, & that info used against those that provided it.