{"id":83960,"date":"2026-02-10T20:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/891181856\/O6OqLm9DWhEgT679"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:11:06","slug":"how-to-beat-china-at-shipbuilding-tech-and-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/how-to-beat-china-at-shipbuilding-tech-and-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to beat China at shipbuilding, tech and energy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

America is losing the war for the physical world. While Washington<\/a> consumes itself with debates over software regulation and partisan grievances, Beijing<\/a> has quietly cornered the market on the heavy infrastructure that dictates geopolitical power.<\/p>\n

The numbers are no longer just worrying; they are catastrophic. As of 2025, China<\/a> possesses 232 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States. Last year, Chinese shipyards churned out more than 1,000 commercial vessels; American yards built eight.<\/p>\n

On the energy front, the gap is widening. China\u2019s<\/a> power generation capacity is approaching 4 terawatts, more than the U.S., the European Union and India combined. Meanwhile, the American Society of Civil Engineers<\/a> estimates that our own infrastructure funding gap has ballooned to $3.7 trillion. We are being outbuilt, outmined and outscaled by an adversary that fuses state ambition with unlimited capital.<\/p>\n

We cannot close this gap with government spending alone. To reindustrialize at the speed of relevance, we need a mechanism to unlock private capital at a scale that matches the Chinese state.<\/p>\n

The solution is the patriotic investment zone.<\/p>\n

Modeled on the 2017 Opportunity Zones initiative, which successfully mobilized more than $75 billion, patriotic investment zones would correct that program\u2019s flaw. Instead of incentivizing luxury apartments in gentrifying neighborhoods, patriotic investment zones would strictly target the three pillars of national survival: domestic shipbuilding, critical mineral mining and energy grid resilience.<\/p>\n

The fuel for this engine is already sitting in our state capitals. U.S. public pension funds manage trillions of dollars for police officers, firefighters, teachers and nurses. Paradoxically, according to the nonprofit Future Union, these funds have committed tens of billions of dollars to Chinese venture capital.<\/p>\n