Social media firm Facebook Inc. has pulled an application to build fiber-optic communications links between the United States and Hong Kong after bowing to pressure from Washington’s national security agencies, according to a media report.

The company had informed U.S. authorities of the plan’s demise, citing ongoing concerns, the Wall Street Journal said.

“Due to ongoing concerns from the U.S. government about direct communications links between the United States and Hong Kong, we have decided to withdraw our [Federal Communications Commission] application,” the WSJ report quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying. “We look forward to working with all the parties to reconfigure the system to meet the concerns of the U.S. government.”

The Hong Kong-Americas project would have built a submarine fiber-optic cable network spanning more than 13,000 kilometers. It was to have originated at two places in California, stretched across the Pacific Ocean and then branched out to both Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Companies involved in the project included China Telecom, China Unicom, RTI Express, Tata Communication and Telstra. The project was meant to further increase internet bandwidth between the U.S. and Hong Kong.

Its cancelation underscored “the latest sign of a deepening rift between the two governments,” the WSJ said. According to Facebook, it was exploring a new request for “a possibly reconfigured submarine cable system.”

The failed plan could hamper Hong Kong’s bid in becoming an information hub in the region, Francis Fong, president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, told Apple Daily. It might also hinder investor confidence, with Facebook’s move seen as a symbolic no-confidence vote in the city’s business and security environment.

Another IT expert, Fung Tak-chung of Photon Link, said that the abandoned plan might also lead to financial implications as operating costs could increase for Facebook without the high-speed network.

With growing tensions between China and the U.S., the latest incident is not the first setback in the technological company’s efforts to build high-speed communications networks across Asia and America, amid fears that projects on Chinese territory may spell security concerns.

Last year, Facebook and Google reportedly put on hold another network, named Pacific Light Cable Network, due to U.S. resistance. The construction would have involved Chinese internet provider Dr Peng Group. BBC reported at the time, quoting a Google spokesperson. The original PLCN plan had to be withdrawn, but a revised plan for U.S.-Taiwan and U.S.-Philippines portions of the system had been submitted, the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

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