4,000 terabits under the sea
海底4000太比特
Big tech and geopolitics are reshaping the internet’s plumbing
科技巨头和地缘纷争正在重塑互联网的管道
Data cables are turning into economic and strategic assets
数据电缆正在变成经济和战略资产
- plumbing （建筑物的）管路系统，自来水管道；水管工程、管道工程
When the navies of Britain, Estonia and Finland held a joint exercise in the Baltic Sea earlier last month, their goal was not to hone warfighting skills. Instead, the forces were training to protect undersea gas and data pipelines from sabotage. The drills followed events in October when submarine cables in the region were damaged. Sauli Niinisto, the Finnish president, wondered whether the Chinese ship blamed for the mischief dragged its anchor on the ocean bed “intentionally or as a result of extremely poor seamanship”.
英国、爱沙尼亚和芬兰的海军于2023年12月上旬在波罗的海进行了联合演习，他们的目标并不是磨练战斗技能，而是操练如何保护水下天然气和数据管道免遭破坏。在此次演习开展前的10月，该地区的海底电缆被损坏。芬兰总统绍利·尼尼斯托在纳闷，被指为肇事者的中国船只究竟是“故意还是因为极差劲的航行技术”在海底拖曳了船锚。
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | exercise 是一种怎样的担忧？
- sabotage （为防止敌人利用或表示抗议而对设备、交通等进行的）蓄意毁坏（参见：词源趣谈 | sabotage 蓄意破坏）
- drill （应对紧急情况的）演习
Submarine cables used to be seen as the internet’s dull plumbing. Now giants of the data economy, such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, are asserting more control over the flow of data, even as tensions between China and America risk splintering the world’s digital infrastructure. The result is to turn undersea cables into prized economic and strategic assets.
海底电缆曾被视为互联网的平凡无奇的管道。如今，正当中美紧张关系可能令全球数字基础设施分崩离析之时，亚马逊、谷歌、Meta和微软等数据经济巨头在宣示对数据流的更大控制权。其结果是，海底电缆变成了备受重视的经济和战略资产。
- splinter （木头、玻璃、石头等）（使）裂成碎片
