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Before 9/11, no one thought of commercial airliners as weapons. But the attack on the Twin Towers transformed the air-travel system into a battlespace.
And although no one thinks of container ships as weapons today, China is weaponizing the global supply chain. The vessels of China’s state-owned shipping companies no longer merely carry merchandise. Sailing to a global network of ports under Chinese control, they’re carrying Chinese power.
China’s dominance of global manufacturing rests on a triad of commercial capabilities that emerged as byproducts of the country’s industrialization. China developed expertise in port construction and operation, container shipping and logistics, and electronic networks. In combination, these enabled the country to offer foreign companies the convenience of one-stop shopping — low-cost production and reliable global distribution from China’s coastal manufacturing sites. China’s port and logistics network also enables its cyber-surveillance efforts, increases Chinese financial leverage over Western countries, and provides China with a round-the-clock presence in the global maritime domain that threatens to limit U.S. naval access to the growing roster of commercial ports under Chinese control.
Lucky timing helped China put this all in place. The country’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 sparked rapid growth in manufacturing. And even as China set about exploiting Western companies — by requiring “technology transfer” as a condition of doing business in China, and even through outright intellectual-property theft — Western intelligence establishments overlooked the security implications of the nascent commercial triad, instead focusing almost entirely on preventing further terrorist attacks.
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See Also:
(1) Tale of two cities: How turmoil in Hong Kong may boost Singapore
(2) Hong Kong protesters have won, and Lam is finished… but Beijing may not take defeat lying down
(3) Hong Kong’s elite fear extradition law could harm their reputation
(4) Everything You Need To Know About the Chinese Military If You Don’t Read Chinese
