Whoever controls the submarine cable infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific will dominate the global Internet. There are more than 486 submarine cables that carry more than 99 percent of all international Internet traffic globally.
Whoever dominates the South China Sea, one of the world's most important shipping lanes for oil, minerals and food, will control more than a fifth of global trade. The future of the global internet is at stake, because if Malaysia falls under Chinese domination, there will be major repercussions across the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)