Securing the World’s Digital Arteries

During my years in Congress and later as president of major research universities, I saw firsthand how infrastructure decisions—whether highways, laboratories, or broadband networks—shape opportunity and influence far beyond the immediate moment. Today, the infrastructure that matters most is digital. The cables beneath our oceans, the clouds that store our data, and the platforms that mediate our daily lives are now the conduits through which economies, governments, and societies operate.

As the United States considers how best to support trusted technology systems in a rapidly changing world, one question stands at the center:

What is the value of ensuring that global data flows do not run through Chinese “captive” channels?

The answer is not simply technical. It strikes at the heart of global sovereignty and America’s role in the world.

Intelligence: Who Sees the World’s Signals?

Digital infrastructure offers extraordinary visibility. Even when content is encrypted, the patterns—the metadata—tell a great deal. They reveal who is communicating, how financial flows are shifting, and when markets, governments, or militaries begin mobilizing. These patterns increasingly train the next generation of artificial intelligence.

When those signals pass through channels controlled by firms operating under Chinese national intelligence laws, Beijing can gain a continuous picture of global activity. This is not conjecture; it is an inherent feature of the system China has built. It provides insight into political rhythms, diplomatic alignments, and commercial behavior across much of the world. In a century defined by information, that visibility becomes leverage.

Leverage: Who Controls the Chokepoints?

If a country’s ministries, ports, banks, and telecom networks run on a Chinese tech stack, the costs of dissent rise. Service can be slowed at inconvenient moments. Upgrades can be delayed. Financing can dry up. And leaders know it.

Diversified, trusted channels preserve sovereignty. Captive systems create political gravity—pulling nations subtly but steadily toward the orbit of the provider.

Standards: Who Shapes the Defaults of the Digital Age?

In universities, the structure of the curriculum determines the trajectory of future learning. In the digital realm, the entity that builds the base layer determines the standards that future innovation must follow.

When China builds the pipes and platforms, it also sets the defaults—how identity is authenticated, how payments are routed, how logs are captured, how systems interoperate, and how data is governed. These defaults establish deep path dependence. Once they take root, reversing them can be prohibitively expensive and politically fraught. Over time, they influence not just technology, but the systems of governance and expectation that surround it.

Trust: The Foundation of Any Digital Partnership

Trust is the scarce commodity in today’s geopolitical system. Nations increasingly understand that Chinese national security laws require technology firms to share data with the state and are prohibited from informing users or partners. That reality cannot coexist with the demands of modern governance, where sensitive information—financial, governmental, medical—must be protected.

A country cannot credibly claim to operate a trusted digital system if its core arteries run through channels legally obligated to provide opaque access to an authoritarian government. The tension between aspiration and infrastructure becomes a strategic liability.

The Lesson of 5G: We Cannot Afford a Repeat in 6G

The world learned this lesson belatedly during the rollout of 5G. The United States focused on restricting Huawei at home, while Huawei quietly became the default provider for much of the developing world. The result is sobering. Huawei’s global market share sits around one-third, but because it has almost no presence in the American alliance, its true share across the rest of the world is far higher—likely approaches 50 percent.

This means that nearly 85 percent of the world’s population, living across roughly 80 percent of the world’s landmass, now communicates, banks, learns, and governs on networks where Huawei equipment is deeply embedded.

That is not merely a commercial statistic. It is a geopolitical warning.

If Beijing controls the digital arteries serving most of humanity, it gains not only insight into global flows but also influence over how much of the world perceives the United States. Information flows shape narratives; narratives shape alignment; alignment shapes security.

We cannot enter the 6G era surrounded by a Global South that defaults to Chinese systems simply because the United States did not show up with an alternative.

Is China Paying for This Advantage? Yes. Should the United States? Yes—but Differently.

China understands that digital infrastructure is strategic. It subsidizes it accordingly—with concessional loans, turnkey packages, integrated training, political support, and a willingness to accept lower financial returns in exchange for greater geopolitical leverage.

The United States should respond, but not by imitating China. Our purpose is not to create dependencies but to strengthen partnerships.

That means sharing risk rather than dominating markets. It means helping nations develop their own regulatory capacity, standards-setting ability, and technological expertise. It means investing not only in cables and data centers, but also in the governance frameworks that ensure those systems remain open, secure, and sovereign.

Our message to partners should be simple: China builds reliance. America builds resilience.

Winning the Next Generation of Installations

The next wave of digital growth will occur in the Global South. That is where the contest over 6G, cloud infrastructure, AI services, and subsea corridors will be won or lost. To compete effectively, we must make our offer compelling, credible, and easy to adopt.

Countries do not simply seek financing; they seek partners who will expand their options, strengthen their human capital, and respect their sovereignty. They seek systems they can understand, govern, and eventually own. When the United States brings that posture, nations respond positively—not because they choose sides, but because they choose autonomy.

The Strategic Bottom Line

Digital infrastructure now underpins national sovereignty, economic competitiveness, and the balance of power. If China continues to dominate the digital arteries serving most of the world, it will gain the ability not only to see global activity but to shape global opinion—to influence how nations understand the United States, how they vote in multilateral institutions, and how they respond in moments of crisis.

That is not hyperbole. It is the logical outcome of ceding control over the systems that carry the world’s information.

We must not repeat the 5G mistake. The 6G era offers a second chance—one that will not come again. The United States and its allies must choose to compete, not to force alignment but to preserve the freedom of nations to chart their own course.

In a world that depends on digital arteries, that freedom is the most valuable infrastructure of all.

In line with my belief that responsibly embracing AI is essential to both personal and national success, this piece was developed with the support of AI tools, though all arguments and conclusions are my own.