Can't agree more!
It doesn't matter if Facebook is going to be accessible trough TOR only or not if the NSA or any other capable intelligence agency can compromise Facebook.
Even if you do somehow manage to put all physical transport links in the hands of some impenetrable organization the US and China would just send a sub to the ocean and tap the cables.
And just like it's granted that AT&T cables can be accessed by US authorities China can access anything that a Chinese company lays down and likely even with more ease.
Yes but a vast swathe of attacks are stopped with good encryption.
Recall for example that TLS ("HTTPS") provides integrity verification, not just encryption.
Simply cutting the connection because the signal was interupted won't work, not to mention that many taps can be inserted without interruption and it's not like the NSA can't figure out how to work around maintenance windows.
But in this case it's not even a covert unauthorized tap it's a Chinese company ofc they'll cooperate with the Chinese government.
But again encryption doesn't prevent physical attacks of this sort they can still suck all the data out and while it maybe useless unless they can decrypt it this vector has nothing to do with building a secure internet.
The problem is that even if you encrypt everything state actors can simply go one step up the chain at the end of the day someone needs to be able to decrypt your packets besides you.
For example, a link from Vatican City to San Marino should be protected from Italy. A link from Bolivia to Switzerland should be protected from all the other countries along the route.