The Digital Silk Road

In the early 2020s, the European Union released a Request for Proposals for a 5G telecommunications network. Six companies from countries within the EU submitted bids but a seventh came from Huawei and ZTE, China's two largest cell phone manufacturers. It was estimated that the cost of having the network constructed by an EU-based firm would run $62 billion. The bid from Huawei and ZTE indicated that they could do it at a significantly lower cost. In the end, the EU went with the bid from the two Chinese firms. Unbeknownst to the EU, the Chinese firms' bid would be subsidized by their government. The cost of that subsidy was the agreement to make the network an intelligence-gathering and politically-influencing mechanism. China would be able to listen in on any phone call, read any text, and view any image which employed the network for delivery. China then approached Denmark, home to Aarhus, Europe's largest and busiest port, as well as the "motherland" of Greenland, and offered them an agreement whereby exclusively Chinese docks would be built in Aarhus and China would be allowed to develop a naval base on Greenland's East Coast. The financial benefits to Denmark were more than they could turn down. Thus, they agreed. When Republican American President Clint Anderson became aware of this, he and his National Security Council decided that such events would create a far too threatening Chinese presence in the Atlantic theater. He informed the European Union of this and threatened such actions as trade sanctions on Denmark and a diminution of American participation in NATO. The EU had a decision to make. And the outcome of that decision could lead to anything from financial ruin to World War III.