An aerial photo shows the latest section of submarine cable being towed to Yushan Island in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: cnsphoto

China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged the US to earnestly respect the principles of market economics and fair competition, and stop smearing and sabotaging Chinese enterprises, as the US House of Representatives passed a bill to restrict undersea cable exports to China, and the US government has moved to intervene in Chinese undersea cable projects overseas.

"We oppose the US' unreasonable crackdown on foreign firms and damage to normal market rules and order by abusing the concept of national security and manipulating its national power," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

The US should not attempt to maintain its "competitive advantage" through bad-faith measures, Mao said. "Neither should it destroy rules and hype so-called spying activities based on no grounds, nor should it find excuses for its unreasonable behavior," she said.

Mao stressed that the Chinese government always encourages Chinese companies to conduct investment and cooperation overseas in accordance with market principles, international rules as well as local laws and regulations.

On Monday, the US House of Representatives passed the 'Undersea Cable Control Act', aiming to prevent China and other countries from acquiring American-made goods and technologies that are used in developing and supporting undersea cables.

Undersea cables have become an important part of global communication infrastructure, with 99 percent of all transoceanic digital communications transporting data such as the internet through the fiber optics cables.

The sector has become a key battleground in the US' trade war against China. At the same time, the US has tried to thwart Chinese projects abroad and choked large tech firm's cable routes to Hong Kong, Reuters reported on Friday. The report gave details about how HMN Technologies Co Ltd, a former undersea cable arm of Huawei, lost a bid of $500 million in 2020 due to Washington's political intervention.

Over the past four years, the US government has intervened in at least six private undersea cable projects in the Asia-Pacific region, either by keeping HMN Technologies from winning the contract or forcing the rerouting or abandonment of cables that would have directly linked US and Chinese territories, the report said.

Global Times