Submarine communications cables may prove the next casualty of the growing geopolitical rivalry between the US and China. As this struggle progresses from rhetoric to action, Chinese and Western projects are becoming increasingly decoupled, and extending to provision of essential global infrastructure where cooperation had become well established. Recent media reports have unearthed a comprehensive effort by the US to deny Chinese submarine cable supplier HMN Tech lucrative contracts in large international projects around the world, most notably the SeaMeWe-6 cable connecting Southern France with Singapore by way of Egypt, Djibouti and India. China for its part has sought to increase its capabilities and compete globally through its own specialist companies. This threatens to end the dominance enjoyed until recently…