While We Quibble & Fool, the PRC Builds

infrastructure, real infrastructure, sends a message

What has the world’s 2nd largest navy, the US Navy, (BTW, are you comfortable with this fact? I’m not, but it is what it is. It happened on our watch, so we have to own it.)

The House put out its NDAA, the Senate has a few ideas, the Executive Branch is mumbling … but about what?

One or two SSNs? Two DDGs or three? Maybe we cut all funding for FFGs, or keep it on life support until NAVSEA gets finished with its Quartermaster Bloomfield LARP’n.

The Army thinks the Indo-Pacific is the Pontic Steppe while at the same time discovering that the Mediterranean Sea is a bit more of a challenge than the James River.

While all this and worse is playing out on the world stage, what is the People’s Republic of China doing for its maritime future?

Let’s start the week right by setting our minds correctly with this simple visual from @SomePLAOSNIT on X:

That isn’t just Jiangnan, but Jiangnan and Hudong combined on Changxing Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River - but that really doesn’t matter. What does matter is the numbers.

Here’s the larger view of the tip of the island that is the latest, from May of this year.

Here’s the same view from February 2005.

How fast did they build that facility?

Here is the view from December of 2008.

Look at the 2005 and 2024 overheads above. Nothing subtle about that.

What about scale? That is roughly five nautical miles of waterfront.

As everyone here should be comfortable with HII’s shipyard in Newport News, that is about the distance from where you enter the 664 tunnel up-river to the Hilton Fishing Pier on the other side of the James River Bridge.

2005.

2024.

Now, ask yourself,

• “Who is the rising power on a mission, and who is the complacent, entitled power?”

• “Who is the power that wants to control the seas by mid-century, and which power cannot see the world?”

I challenge everyone here with this simple quest: these are not the only Chinese or American shipyards. Find them, and do the same historical search I did on Google Earth.

What story does this tell you?