China Built 1,000 Ships Last Year. The U.S. Built 8. Kelly Barner Published Aug 21, 2025 + Follow In April, President

China passed us in PPP in 2014 and since then has grown at a faster rate anally, consistently, despite all our predictions and schadenfreude (wishful thinking) predicting bubbles bursting, wide spread corruption causing an economic slow down, and inflated economic reports causing a correction in the future: https://statisticstimes.com/economy/united-states-vs-china-economy.php (They are averaging about 5% annually while we are growing at roughly half that rate).

Internet users by country: https://internetacrosstheworld.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/1/3/37131827/3684971_orig.png

STEM patents by country: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Patent-Grants-by-Country-of-Origin.html

Engineers by country: https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/7913.jpeg

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China became a monster a long time ago.

Perceptions lag reality.

Folks are just today realizing or accepting what has been true for a while.

However, what is alarming is that while China has been an economic powerhouse for a while, they have in more recent times begun to apply a greater share of their wealth and tech to their war industry, and that is a concern: https://www.reddit.com/r/LessCredibleDefence/comments/18zc8oa/global_military_spending_in_2022/#lightbox

The are massively modernizing their armed forces, and who they are seeing as their threat is obvious: https://news.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/China-Carrier-Target-Maxar.jpg or https://news.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Chinese-Navy-Targets-In-Desert-New-Aircraft-Carrier.jpeg

I wondered about the quality of their labor & hence the quality of their work. What is the quality of these 1000 ships they supposedly built compared to ours?

Top Navies by Aggregate Displacement (As of 2026/2025 Reports):

United States: ~3.5M+ tons (Global leader)
China: >3,000,000 tonnes (Rapid growth, adding major vessels)
Russia: ~1,426,539 tonnes
Japan: ~798,062 tonnes
India: ~631,989 tonnes (Experiencing substantial growth)
Turkey: ~335,032 tonnes
Indonesia: ~330,200 tonnes
Taiwan: ~271,286 tonnes
Spain: ~241,133 tonnes
Egypt: ~229,650 tonnes
Germany: ~228,472 tonnes
Australia: ~218,224 tonnes

Sure, China is producing more boats, but they have not surpassed the US in terms of total water displacement. This is almost certainly because they are building numerous smaller craft to take Taiwan.

China's growth trajectory has been huge, however their economy is currently sputtering because they have wrecked their relationship with their top customers (The West). I'm not sure they'll overtake us, and I'm also not sure about the structural integrity and operational capability of anything they produce.

The idea that their economy is “sputtering” I would be cautious with.

We tend to want to trust or believe things which validate what we wish were true.

This is a story that has been in our MSM year after year both from the left and right (something they can agree on - LOL): https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20111031,00.html

The problem is, it never pans out and China keeps growing.

I would bet money that “sputtering” still has them growing faster than us, by a significant margin:

https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/chinas-economy-expected-to-grow-in-2026-amid-surging-exports

https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/country/china

https://www.imf.org/en/countries/chn

Regards the macro economic changes affecting China and the US with trade:

1.) China today has a massive domestic market second only to the US. The day where China's economy is entirely export driven are over.

2.) There is something referred to as the Global South + Russia: https://i.redd.it/rtv7e1h2xej81.jpg

China is well positioned and even if you go to Mexico, you see Chinese made motorcycles, cars etc. all over.

Go to most of Africa today, and it's the Chinese that dominate (they became the #1 in Africa 2018): https://static.electronicsweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/11175745/BB0D652C-A5FE-40A5-8519-81277708C837.jpeg

When this war in Ukraine started and the “de-coupling” (as its referred to) with China accelerated as they backed Russia, China also became THE major supplier for nations like Russia that turned to them for literally everything: https://tradingeconomics.com/china/exports/russia

China still sells a lot in the West, but Russia has become dependent on China both for their oil and gas sales as well as a source for most of their goods and services: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/01/china-now-supplies-90-of-russias-sanctioned-tech-imports-bloomberg-a92662

Russia is not the big guy in this love fest between those two. China is.

Russia is the kid on the playground that wants to be a bully, but they don't quite have the muscle to do it.

We have been beating the crap out of them for years, taking away what they once controlled in Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Syria (2014), Venezuela (2026).

We have brought border states of theirs into NATO: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia (2004).

We tried to do this in the Republic of Georgia (2008) but they stopped us.

We more or less sponsored a coups in Ukraine, overthrew a democratically elected government there 2014 (sold as some great event for democracy and human rights, ironic - goes to prove he who controls the narrative can frame anything in a positive way), and then in 2021 wanted to bring them into NATO.

Consider the FACT that we promised Russia, "not one inch Eas"t and it was in fact a precondition for German unification, which all went ignored when we decided to bring Ukraine into NATO. Then there was the Ballistic Missile Treaty which we wanted to violate because of missile defense and withdrew from: https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002-01/us-withdrawal-abm-treaty-president-bushs-remarks-and-us-diplomatic-notes#:~:text=On%20December%2013%2C%20President%20George%20W.%20Bush,well%20as%20to%20Belarus%2C%20Kazakhstan%2C%20and%20Ukraine.

Then there was the issue of us grossly violating the Conventional Forces Europe treaty (CFE). We didn't include the manpower and equipment of new member states!

Legalistically, we argued that the forces of new NATO member states were not included, so we maybe didn't technically lie and cheat, but just like claiming we never promised no NATO Eastward expansion, it was a case where we surely did lie, acted in bad faith and against the spirit of treaties and other agreements of the past which created the peace we enjoyed after the wall came down and Soviet Union dissolved.

For Russia this is about us shitting all over them, for many years. And Ukraine in NATO is simply an unacceptable security situation for them.

For China that was a golden opportunity. They benefited form this in ways that are unnoticed and ignored by our MSM. China got oil and gas deals that were exceptionally favorable. China became the #1 in BRICS, an organization conceived by Russia and once led by them more or less. China saw their exports to Russia explode. China has benefited from this with their war industry.

After Ukraine started, all eyes were on Russia and old Soviet cliche's were thrown around. It was presented as some huge threat, remember this nonsense: “if we don't stop them in Ukraine they will keep going.” A scenario so unrealistic that it's laughable.

With what are they going to do that with?

Of course we're defending democracy, human rights, and standing up for Ukraine's sovereignty, that was the sales pitch for a war which was 100% avoidable, for which there was no imminent threat or pressing security need for NATO East expansion, largely predictable that it would happen, highly provoked (why we claimed the opposite to be the case repeatedly, i.e. unprovoked), and even predicable in outcome. This was and remains a “stupid war.”

It has simply become so entrenched and with so many hands in the cookie jar that disengaging has become difficult at this point.

Biden is a Democrat, the EU supported this NATO expansion, and Republicans are reluctant to play opposition politics with national security issues, so the press coverage was extremely favorable.

But it is China that has been our #1 threat for a long time now, and they have grown to be a monster economically, technologically and militarily.

Two considerations:

1.) China's top priority for its military is Taiwan. To that end, they do not need a dozen carriers like we do. They simply need to keep us away and like with Hormuz, and that can be done without having a massive amount of steel tonnage afloat.

2.) We are the "worlds policeman," a pejorative but essentially true. We cannot concentrate / focus our capabilities on one single threat. Even now with Iran, we still need to think China and Taiwan, Cuba, Yemen (related to Iran), Somalia and pirates, Russia and Ukraine (we're still supplying Ukraine intel and weapons), the Korean peninsula which today even means the defense of CONUS since they have long range missiles and nukes (exactly why we do not want Iran added to that threat list).

The point being is that if something does happen, China can throw everything they have at thins one single problem, while we are split up between multiple theaters around the world and cannot surge everything we have to this threat. In fact, when things get serious, many nations like N. Korea have learned that is the opportune time to reshuffle the cards and start barking as laud as they can. Ever since Vietnam, you can almost bet on North Korea to start causing problems as soon as we are engaged in a larger conflict somewhere and if we are in a conflict with China (which has a lot of influence over North Korea) this would likely become a more serious conflict (You need to assume a China conflict will include the Korean peninsula).

What is the quality of these 1000 ships they supposedly built compared to ours?

I'll bet the toilets at least work on them which is more than we can say for our latest $13.3 billion aircraft carrier.