China has created “the operating system for the globalized economy,” putting other countries at its mercy. Chris O’Dea, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, explains how China has built strategic influence through commercial shipping networks, ports, and infrastructure, potentially giving it a significant geopolitical boost over both the U.S. and the entire global economy.
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America Lost Its Maritime Power and China Filled the Void | Chris O’Dea
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Short sightedness and greed blinded business and government to longer term strategic thinking. It begs the question WHY did these so called smart, all-knowing, leaders think. A dictatorship like China would ever become a collaborative member of the free-market capitalist model? 20-20 hindsight shows the result. The USA doesn’t possess what it need to maintain its world power leadership and has become dependent on its primary adversary fir its basic chip and mfg needs. Thus is not the leadership that will keep us safe, secure and independent!
The loss of our logistics capabilities and maritime standing was a result of incredible arrogance combined with criminal stupidity. One of the only topics in which I disagreed with Rush Limbaugh was his continual touting of the "information age." We didn't need to make steel, we had information. Why should China pay for programs when they could come over here and take them for free? If we couldn't make steel and tanks and ships, any real-world power could just come and take it. I spent several years at the Marine Barracks at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. They worked on nuclear submarines and other naval ships. Therefore they had crews certified to work nuclear. They had cranes and other equipment certified to work nuclear. Even had railroad tracks that were continuously tested to be certified to transport nuclear items. When they closed it, although I was gone, I was hoping it would be sold to a U.S. company to retain the skilled crews. Nope. And once these people dispersed around the world, that was that. Jack seemed to be surprised that logistics could be so important. Why did Napoleon fail? Logistics. What was George Marshall's claim to fame in World War II? Logistics. Our problem is that we raise think-tank geniuses who have never swung a hammer.
Thank you for having Mr. O'Dea speak on the maritime subjects. He filled in a lot of my blank spots on the very complicated and vitally necessary machinery and operations of international shipping. I was once a tiny flea employed at the Sparrows Point/Bethlehem Steel shipyard. It was one of the black sheep that the US shipyards had become in the late 70's and early 80's. As such I had my eye on the why's and where's of the industry as the last of the Super Tankers (1,200 ft. long) under contract were being built. The rumor mill was cranking up during Ronald Reagan's first term. He was not a big supporter of US industries and let a lot of under cost imports like steel flow here fairly easily. Though I was a Republican, his laissez-faire business outlook with American jobs being lost did not make him my favorite president. Our shipyards were losing work to cheaper (not building to required, expensive, Coast Guard standards) foreign yards. The big US yards (less than a dozen) had long time employees with precious, specialized institutional memories and skills shuffling from state to state where yards still had work for a time. That of course had mostly clocked out by the 90's except in the naval construction locations. To my view that time was the top of the sliding board drop for US maritime shipping to be followed by the purposeful export of most US manufacturing jobs that our near sighted leadership, both in business and government, cashed in on until recently. Let us al