The Gwadar Port connects East Africa with Europe.
Building a digital connectivity through Silk Road overseas is seen as part of China's efforts to become a global technology power. Recently, China-Pakistan cooperation in Pakistan's communication fiber optic cable project into the final stage has received media attention.
China's Digital communications cable project in Pakistan
China's communications cable project in Pakistan, as part of the China-Pakistan economic corridor, will connect submarine cables in the Arabian Sea to provide services to countries along the route that participate in China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The report also said progress on many projects along the Belt and Road was affected by the new crown outbreak, including a $6.8 billion rail project in Pakistan. Still, China continued to step up efforts to advance digital and communications infrastructure projects at this time.
Eyck Freymann, author of Belt and Road: China's Power Meets the World, argues that the focus of China's Belt and Road initiative is "shifting from traditional infrastructure to high-tech collaboration and digital services".
Some analysts believe that China's overseas promotion of the digital economy, U.S. policy is also an essential factor.
Wang Yiwei, an international studies scholar at Chinese Min University, wrote last year that the U.S. was accelerating its push for the digital Silk Road by imposing a strategic crackdown on Chinese companies Huawei and 5G technology, coercing allies to decouple from China and trying to "de-Chinese" global supply chains.
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Pakistan has been seeking to establish new Internet access. Most of Pakistan's and Europe's connected Internet traffic now done via land cables from China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan.