China Mobile's European Data Center Opening (2019) - The New Geopolitics of Data Sovereignty

China Mobile's European Data Center Opening (2019) - The New Geopolitics of Data Sovereignty

In December 2019, China Mobile, the largest telecommunications operator in China, established its first data center in Europe. This was not just a market expansion, but a move of great significance as the competition for "data hegemony" intensified in the international political arena. At the time, the spread of cloud computing and 5G made data management an issue directly linked to security, and the EU was strengthening data sovereignty by enforcing the GDPR in 2018. Therefore, the fact that Chinese companies had a local presence was also a political message that they could operate under European regulations. At the same time, the U.S.-China conflict was escalating, and pressure was mounting in the U.S. and Europe, especially over the exclusion of Huawei. The U.S. warned that Chinese companies' equipment would be used for espionage and urged its allies to eliminate them, but European countries could not avoid dependence on China in terms of cost and technology, and they vaci
llated between cooperation and caution. The Chinese side was pushing to expand into Europe as part of its One Belt, One Road digital Silk Road strategy, aiming to extend its telecommunications network to Europe, following Asia and Africa. This move was symbolic of the trend known as "data is the oil of the 21st century," and indicated an era in which data management would determine the international order as much as resources and military power. The opening of China Mobile's European base went beyond mere business development and was positioned as a cross-section of the great power competition for "data sovereignty" and "international trust" in the midst of the U.S.-China confrontation.