Outsourcing giant-in-waiting China has not escaped the economic downturn gripping parts of the West. Premier Wen Jiabao has warned of "a most difficult year" in 2008, and of “uncertainties in international circumstances and the economic environment... [and] difficulties and contradictions in the domestic economy". Such a candid assessment of the year ahead is a departure from the regime's typically robust predictions.

The situation has been worsened by the most savage winter storms in fifty years, which have brought central, southern and eastern provinces to a standstill, leaving hundreds of thousands of people camped outside railway stations in the run-up to the lunar new year celebrations. At least 64 people have been killed by the weather so far, and rolling power outages have swept the nation, affecting tens of millions of people.

With the Chinese government – which faces mounting criticism for mismanagement of the travel chaos – asking migrant workers to set aside their annual holiday, the risk for business now is that it may take weeks for electricity supplies and transport links to return to normal.

In the meantime, economic uncertainty is taking hold elsewhere in the world, and the yuan is appreciating against the US dollar, making China's exports more expensive.

China's previously double-digit growth has benefited many countries, including Australia, whose iron ore and coal industries have been much in demand. Any downturn in China's fortunes have wide-reaching consequence for the region, and its trading partners.

It's clear that China has caught a cold, but who sneezes as a result could surprise many in the West, especially in our industry.

Acts of God aside, the fragility of offshore business and optical communications in all parts of the world was thrown into unexpectedly sharp relief on Wednesday, as man-made chaos struck parts of the Middle East and Asia. A single ship attempting to anchor off the coast of the Egyptian port of Alexandria struck and severed two major undersea communications cables, leaving a reported 75 million people in Egypt and points east to India temporarily cut off from the Web.

Governments in the region asked private surfers to stay offline, so that business communications could take priority while networks were rerouted, presumably via distant Atlantic and Pacific connections.

In most cases communications were swiftly restored, but the accident remains a lesson for all of us who rely on such links, wherever we are based in the world. All desk-bound enterprises are aware how swiftly local work grinds to a halt when internet links go down, but the problem is far more acute when the failed connection is an international hub.

Navigating the stormy seas of economic strife is one thing, but we often forget the more predictable and manageable crises that can be planned for with relative ease. Indeed, we have become so accustomed to seamless wireless communications and multinational, 24/7 business, that we quickly forget that a majority of the network is land-borne, or sub-marine. That network is vulnerable at manifold points.

If one ship in trouble in rough seas can wipe out communications with a continent, then how easy a target have we become to a deliberate attack?