China’s shipbuilding capacity is believed to be over 230 times greater than that of the United States. Chinese shipyards produce roughly 23.2 million tons, accounting for over 50% of the world’s mechant tonnage produced. In contrast, capacity of the U.S. is less than 100,000 tons, or 0.1% of global production.

China’s Jiangnan Shipyard alone has more capacity than all U.S. shipyards combined. The unclassified U.S. Navy briefing slide (above) dramatically illustrates the disparity.

By way of comparison, in 1942 the U.S. economy was 5.6 times larger than Japan’s and built 49,000 airplanes while Japan built only 9,000. In the three years following the Battle of Midway, Japan built six aircraft carriers and the U.S. built 17. In four years, American industrial production, already the world’s largest, doubled in size.

That is no longer so.