China Builds 540 Times More Ships Per Year Than United States Does - Congressman
WASHINGTON, (Sputnik) - China today builds 540 times as many ships per year as the United States does, US Congressman John Moolenaar said during a congressional hearing.
"Today, the United States accounts for one tenth of 1% (0.1%) of global shipbuilding while Chinese shipyards with nearly 20% of their operating costs subsidized by Beijing accounts for 54%," Moolenar said.
Moolenaar was addressing the US House Select Committee on a hearing on the strategic competition between the United States and China dubbed "From High Tech to Heavy Steel: Combatting the People's Republic of China's Strategy to Dominate Semiconductors, Shipbuilding and Drones."
China was seeking to build up its industry to establish a lasting industrial dominance around the world that ensures the ideological global triumph of its autocratic and anti-democratic system, Moolenaar said.
'The Chinese Communist Party aspires to be the arsenal of autocracy," Moolenaar said.
This ambition was in contrast to US President Franklin Roosevelt's declaration during World War II that the United States had to become the arsenal of democracy, Moolenaar added.
