Point I’m making is that there might be a more simpler answer for this than some big dangerous conspiracy theory. lol
There’s two reasons that are possible. The most likely is to try to hide their movements, which in the age of drones and sattelites is pretty far-fetched, but from their increasingly difficult situation worth a shot to them.
Of course, if they end up ramming another country’s flagship at night the pressure will REALLY get ramped up.
The second possibility is that the lights go off because the ships are being idled because no one wants to take on the U.S. position in this one. While someone like Iran would not likely take that approach they could see it as a sop to America in a public relations way, to not load a Cosco ship for a week or two.
One lesson of the past few years with the trade battle is that the biggest lessons get learned in unexpected ways, like the NBA big mouths are finding out.