China is to build two bases to maintain undersea cables in the East China and South China seas as part of efforts to bolster its digital infrastructure , which has emerged as a new front in its geopolitical competition with the United States. Under the government's five-year plan for the information and communication industry, China is also seeking to build two more specialist ships for undersea cable maintenance in the next five years "to establish an internationally competitive capability in the construction and maintenance of submarine cables". The plan does not give details of the two bases' operations, but says…