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Chinese shipbuilding capacity over 200 times greater than US, Navy intelligence says

archive.ph /Gk0am

The slide's authenticity was confirmed by a Navy spokesperson, who cautioned that it was not meant to be an in-depth analysis.

The slide shows that Chinese shipyards have a capacity of about 23.2 million tons compared to less than 100,000 tons in the U.S., making Chinese shipbuilding capacity more than 232 times greater than that of the U.S.

The slide also shows the "battle force composition" of the countries' two navies side-by-side, which includes "combatant ships, submarines, mine warfare ships, major amphibious ships, and large combat support auxiliary ships." The ONI estimated that China had 355 such naval vessels in 2020 while the U.S. had 296. The disparity is expected to continue to grow every five years until 2035, when China will have an estimated 475 naval ships compared to 305-317 U.S. ships.

Another section of the slide provides an estimate on the percentage each country allocates to naval production in its shipyards, with China garnering roughly 70% of its shipbuilding revenue from naval production, compared to about 95% of American shipbuilding revenue.

Because of China's centrally planned economy, the country is able to control labor costs and provide subsidies to its shipbuilding infrastructure, allowing the Chinese to outbid most competitors around the world and dominate the commercial shipping industry, Sadler said.

Alternative title - "Central planning is more efficient than markets" confirms US Navy

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  • The day when it becomes unavoidably obvious to Americans that China is doing better than them will be hilarious.

    • All a person has to do is walk down the street in Shanghai, and then LA or New York City, and even the most oblivious will figure it out! I think most Americans think of China as a collection of farming villages rather than the powerhouse they've become.

      • I met a young (bourgeois) woman from Shanghai recently, dating a friend of a friend, who said that when she comes to a city like New York, let alone another city in the US, she finds it backward. It obviously makes me wonder but as I'm unable to make the comparison I can't be certain to what extent it's an objective judgement but my gut is to take her word for it, though the fact shes bougie also had to be taken into account.

        • NGL as a Br🤮t my experiences have suggested the US is kind of backwards - stuff like the public transport being even worse than ours, or having only just adopted contactless payments, or not having walkable cities. We're not much better, but it is kinda jarring when Americans talk about how they're the leaders of the free world then are surprised other countries can do instant bank transfers from their phone.

          Anyway, if she's coming from a country that has actually good versions of all that, I can imagine it's like when I went to the former gdr and felt like I'd stepped 15 years into the past.

          • Yeh most of the US is worse overall than the UK I'd reckon. I have more first-hand knowledge of the UK, having spent a decent amount of time there, and it's especially striking once you're outside of London. Like in the North, Wales or Northern Ireland the infrastructure situation has clearly been massively under-invested in for decades compared to London. Even spots which are getting in investment like Liverpool or Glasgow are mainly being gentrified instead of becoming more economically efficient or affordable.

            It does also make me wanna go see China but I don't know people there and shit's expensive as fuck lmao.

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