China reportedly has spent billions expanding its ports network to secure sea lanes and establish itself as a maritime super power.
Investments into a wide network of harbors across the globe have made Chinese port operators the world leaders, a Financial Times investigation has discovered.
The "emergence of China as a maritime superpower is set to challenge a U.S. command of the seas," the FT warned.
Strategic tensions between China and the U.S. are smoldering as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and the world waits to see action on his campaign vows to crack down on China.
Pushed by President Xi Jinping to become a maritime superpower, China is indeed a formidable foe to the U.S. on the high seas. China's shipping companies carry more cargo than those of any other nation, as the FT said five of the top 10 container ports in the world are in mainland China with another in Hong Kong. China's coast guard has the globe’s largest maritime law enforcement fleet and its navy is the world’s fastest growing among major powers, the FT said.
As its prime example, the FT cited Pakistan’s Arabian Sea port of Gwadar (owned, financed and built by China), which occupies a strategic location, which potentially political and military ramifications. Islamabad and Beijing "for years denied any military plans for the harbor, insisting it was a purely commercial project to boost trade," the FT reported.
Data compiled or commissioned by the Financial Times from third-party sources show the extent of China’s maritime dominance:
- Beijing’s shipping lines deliver more containers than those from any other country, according to data from Drewry, the shipping consultancy.
- The five big Chinese carriers together controlled 18 per cent of all container shipping handled by the world’s top 20 companies in 2015, higher than the next country, Denmark.
- Nearly two-thirds of the world’s top 50 container ports had some degree of Chinese investment by 2015, up from about one-fifth in 2010, according to FT research. The total size of these investments is difficult to calculate because of sketchy disclosure.
To be sure, Chinese-Americans tensions have been on a slow boil this week.
Blocking Chinese access to islands in the South China Sea would require the U.S. to "wage war," an influential Chinese state-run tabloid said on Friday, after U.S. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson suggested the strategy on Wednesday.
Tillerson told his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he wanted to send a signal to China that their access to islands in the disputed South China Sea "is not going to be allowed." He did not elaborate.
The United States would have to "wage a large-scale war" in the South China sea to prevent Chinese access to the islands, the Global Times said in an English language editorial, Reuters reported.
The paper, which is known for writing strongly-worded, hawkish and nationalist editorials, is published by the ruling Communist Party's flagship paper. It does not reflect Chinese policy.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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