🇺🇸🇨🇳NEW ARTICLE: Why the US Can Never Match Chinese Shipbuilding
(NOTE: Because X blocks NEO links I will publish the full text of the article below)
In a recent Business Insider article and accompanying video regarding the US’ $66 billion plan to “beat China’s shipbuilding empire,” it is revealed that US plans ultimately amount to unlikely solutions to what are deep, systemic problems with little political appetite to face, let alone address - a microcosm of the US’ wider terminal decline relative to the emerging multipolar world.
In the video, an American shipyard worker is seen wearing a helmet with a sticker saying, “Go Navy, Beat China,” China - a nation that has never attacked the United States - and instead has been subject to US encroachment, occupation, and war both before and after the World Wars - exemplifying the delusional belligerence US interests encourage among the American public and specifically those among the US military and across its military industrial base.
Detached even further from reality is the notion of the US “beating China” in the realm of shipbuilding where China is reported to build between 1,000 to 1,700 ships a year while the US builds ships in single digit numbers.
While the video discusses plans by the US to invest in shipbuilding through expanding the workforce with training programs, improve worker retention, and through the use of new technology to produce more with less, and even plans to have US proxies build ships for the US - no plans were announced to address the systemic problems creating this disparity in shipbuilding capacity in the first place.
The problems stymying US shipbuilding (and all other productive industries in the US) are problems no amount of investment or technology can solve until the root causes themselves are addressed.
US-China Shipbuilding Gap is a Symptom of Bigger Problems
The atrophy of US shipbuilding has not taken place in a vacuum or overnight.
It has been in decline alongside all other major productive American industries and for generally the same reasons. The US has spent decades prioritizing shareholder primacy (the pursuit of perpetually expanding profits) at the expense of all other considerations - including industrial capacity, national infrastructure, American education, and the workforce the US educational system is tasked with creating.
The US - in pursuit of perpetual profits - has reorganized its economy from a global industrial leader, to a financialized ponzi-economy building wealth across ledgers rather than upon factory floors.
The US educational system reflects this reprioritization - not only in redirecting students from productive vocations to better serve the ponzi-economy - but also in the form of maximizing profits to access the education system itself. This has been done through expanding privatization across primary and secondary education, and across all forms of higher education. Young adults find themselves faced with tens of thousands of US dollars in debt before starting their first step in any chosen career.
This has created not only a critical shortage of workers for the US industrial base, it has created a systemic obstacle that must be removed before that critical shortage of workers can even be addressed. Reforming US education alone, is a process that could take a generation to solve.
An atrophied workforce is only one of several systemic problems the US faces. The other takes the shape of national infrastructure, including transportation, energy production and distribution, and the very facilities at which shipbuilding and other forms of industrial activity take place.
Because the US functions as a for-profit system where the “private sector” is responsible for all of the above - and because profits are always easier to make through financialization and/or legacy industrial processes (making money by doing or selling the same thing over and over again) - the chances of the “private sector” investing in the infrastructure and facilities required to even expand US shipbuilding significantly, let alone meaningfully close the gap with China, are next to non-existent.
Shortcuts have been proposed, including private and government-funded training programs to rapidly expand the pool of qualified workers for jobs across the US military industrial complex, and specifically in the realm of shipbuilding.
But even with the proposed training programs to expand the US workforce - another systemic problem exists preventing the efficient use of this workforce. The cost of training and retaining American workers will always be astronomically more expensive than in China precisely because of the for-profit financialized nature of the US ponzi-economy in all aspects beyond (including directly upstream from) shipbuilding.
In the United States, any particular American laborer requires a wage capable of paying for the exorbitant cost-of-living in the US, including not only their own education/training, but also their rent, food, utilities, transportation, and healthcare. Even with healthcare provided by the shipbuilding industry - the corporations themselves must pay astronomically higher costs for that healthcare than in China.
This is because - in addition to the shipbuilding sector itself attempting to maximize profit in exchange for minimal effort or purpose - the US workforce is preyed upon by similar profit-maximization across all other sectors of US economic activity. The pharmaceutical industry alone uses US tax-funded research and development to produce medication - then charges many times its production costs for access to it.
China’s government does vastly better in subordinating pharmaceutical production to national interests - rather than the other way around as it functions in the US. This means that regardless of whether a company, an insurance policy, or an individual patient in China is paying the costs for healthcare, it will always be cheaper overall than in the United States.
This example applied across other costs of living - whether it is food, electricity, Internet access, or rent - plays out in a similar way. Chinese workers consistently enjoy cheaper prices, accessible services, and better infrastructure because the Chinese government places the purpose of production and the livelihood of those involved above the maximization of profits. This means China’s private sector, state-owned enterprises, and combinations of the two are free to pursue profit maximization as long as it doesn’t undermine collective national interests including the welfare of the Chinese population.
The US system, when compared to China's, could be best equated to a troop of chimpanzees stripping bare fruit trees across the forest they live in (and taking that of other nearby troops) versus farmland carefully and sustainably cultivated by a family of farmers. Both approaches ultimately satisfy hunger. Only one approach does so reliably and sustainably by emphasizing long-term planning over short-sighted and immediate satisfaction.
Beyond a more humane economic and political system, China’s is also a more efficient system. The maximization of profits not only comes at the cost of the vast majority of any population within a system doing so - it also comes at the cost of any other objective besides maximizing profits - including the quality of and accessibility to services, and the quality and quantities of manufactured goods - in this case - ships.
The Chinese government’s overall approach to economics and governance ensures sound fundamentals in terms of infrastructure and workforce, but also ensures that the shipbuilding process in China itself serves the purpose of actually making ships to serve specific national priorities - both in the realm of commercial commerce and national defense - in addition to simply making money (which they also do).
In order for the United States to even meaningfully close the gap with China - it would need to address all of these systemic problems plaguing its shipbuilding industry and all the upstream economic activity that makes shipbuilding possible - including cost of living for workers, supply chains, and the infrastructure facilitating both.
If the US Cannot Compete, it Will Try to Delete
Even if the US were to shift over to an entirely purpose-driven socioeconomic model - it would still fall far short of matching Chinese shipbuilding solely because of the disparity in scale between the US and China. China’s population is vastly larger, as is its overall industrial base, education system, and its national infrastructure.
Because of the US’ inability to outcompete directly with China and other productive nations around the globe - it will increasingly seek the use of asymmetric methods of undermining and disrupting productive forces.
This includes the US’ current regional war in West Asia - targeting Iran and its allies - Hezbollah in Lebanon and Ansarallah in Yemen, but also the targeting of supposed US “allies” like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait whose energy production and exports have been likewise targeted and disrupted amid the ongoing US aggression.
The disruption of energy exports from West Asia to the rest of Asia - including China - is meant to undermine and roll back Chinese industrial production and economic prosperity as a substitute for the US’ inability to compete with China directly.
The US has recently begun striking at data centers across Russia - the opening shots in a planned global asymmetric strategy to stop multipolar artificial intelligence development from permanently surpassing the US in the same manner production, military, and other technological capabilities have begun to do.
The US is also increasingly threatening waterways worldwide - both directly and by proxy - through a combination of outright wars and associated blockades, the seizure of ships “sanctioned” by the US and its European proxies, and the use of maritime drones (attributed to US proxies like Ukraine) to physically strike at and attempt to destroy the shipping of targeted nations. While it is primarily Russian shipping being targeted now - Chinese shipping has been affected with the likelihood of wider and more deliberate targeting expanding in the near future.
Together with the US effectively banning Chinese-built ships from US ports through targeted fees and the likelihood the US will force its proxies worldwide to follow suit - the US is attempting to target Chinese industry, including shipbuilding, from a multitude of economic, political, administrative, and military vectors.
Beyond these methods - the US continues political interference worldwide, in attempt to both disrupt global peace and stability and thus economic progress among the multipolar world, but also to politically capture targeted nations and transform them into proxies the US can use as armed and dangerous geopolitical “battering rams” against nations like China as the US has done with Ukraine and Georgia (from 2003-2008) vis-a-vis Russia, and the Philippines and the island province of Taiwan the US is using against the rest of China.
The combination of these approaches constitutes a multidomain war on multipolarism - which is both an admission of the failure of US power and primacy, but still an existential threat to global peace, stability, prosperity, and human progress.
In the realm of shipbuilding in particular, the US seeks to use the industrial capacity of nations like South Korea and Japan to compensate for its own failing industrial base, attempting to both boost America’s ability to put to sea additional warships, but also maintain and repair those already at sea. Unfortunately for the US - the combined shipbuilding capacity of itself and its proxies fails to amount to even half of China’s shipbuilding capacity alone.
The notion the US will leverage “new technologies” to more efficiently build, maintain, and repair ships fails to acknowledge the fact that China will just as easily use these “new technologies” to further enhance its current advantages over the US.
The only real means by which the US could close the gap in terms of shipbuilding vis-a-vis China would be to cripple or undermine China’s industrial base, and by doing so, its shipbuilding capacity - precisely through targeting the energy empowering China’s industry as well as the economic prosperity underpinning China’s national policies including continued improvement of and investment in its industrial base (including shipyards).
In other words, if the US cannot outcompete China, nor attack China’s industrial base directly, it seeks to asymmetrically target the global factors China’s growing economic might is being built on - energy and trade - both of which require peace and stability to thrive.
Only through asymmetrically sabotaging China’s ability to outproduce the US can the US ever hope to narrow the gap in shipbuilding or any other of a vast and growing number of metrics in which China matches or has far surpassed the US in.
The fear in Washington continues to be that even if the collective remaining power of the US is fully and radically leveraged toward this asymmetrical aggression - it might not only not be enough - it could supercharge China’s efforts to both overcome this asymmetrical aggression - and also collectively unite an increasingly multipolar world in purpose against the US’ pursuit of unwarranted global power.
Shipbuilding is only one of several metrics in which China has seemingly irreversibly surpassed the US. The fact the US continues seeking the means to reassert its primacy worldwide, especially against China, is not evidence necessarily that the US can succeed - but that through its efforts to attempt to do so - the US continues to pose the greatest danger to peace, stability, prosperity, and human progress on Earth today.
Not only does China and other productive forces on Earth today need to prevent the US from successfully reasserting unipolar primacy over the planet, it must also successfully prevent the US from destroying the planet in a failed effort to do so.
Brian Berletic is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer.
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SOLD
Maestro.trade for $19,988 USD
Congrats to the buyer!
.TRADE is a top-level domain that surged in popularity in 2025. Now, in 2026, it is a well-established TLD that has expanded into the prediction markets industry – where it feels like a perfect fit and a much stronger branding choice than .MARKETS.
.TRADE domains are now being used worldwide across categories such as crypto and DeFi, the aforementioned prediction markets, physical trade, logistics and commodities, brokerages, CFDs and TradFi trading, B2B wholesale and marketplaces, trade finance and compliance, gaming marketplaces, analytics and intelligence, and local and consumer businesses.
Here are several companies and projects building their brands on .TRADE:
Crypto & DeFi
● Liquid.trade: Multi-market trading platform for finding opportunities, sizing positions, and executing leveraged trades across web and mobile.
● Drift.trade: Decentralized on-chain trading platform on Solana for perpetual futures, spot trading, prediction markets, and yield products.
● Axiom.trade: DeFi trading platform for on-chain crypto markets, offering tools to trade memecoins, perpetuals, and yield products.
● RollX.trade: Base-native decentralized exchange for spot and perpetual crypto trading, combining self-custody with CEX-like execution and leveraged markets.
● Fly.trade: Cross-chain DeFi liquidity aggregation protocol that lets users swap crypto assets across multiple blockchains without manually using bridges or DEXs.
● Legend.trade: Social crypto trading platform where users discover top traders, track live positions, and copytrade directly through the Legend app.
● Catapult.trade: Crypto token launch and synthetic trading platform where users launch high-volatility tokens, trade provably fair charts, and earn from market volume.
● Phoenix.trade: Solana-based perpetuals trading platform offering leveraged crypto markets through a decentralized on-chain exchange interface.
● Gains.trade: Decentralized perpetuals exchange where users trade crypto, forex, stocks, indices, and commodities from their wallet with leveraged on-chain positions.
● Bulk.trade: High-performance decentralized exchange combining self-custody with CEX-like speed for fast, fair on-chain trading across many markets.
● Vend.trade: Self-custodial crypto trading platform for buying and selling tokens with simple onboarding, low minimums, and no trading fees.
● Click.trade: Upcoming crypto trading platform offering Chrome, Telegram, and terminal interfaces for spot and futures trading across web3 markets.
● Paragon.trade: Crypto trading platform with structured DeFi products and automated strategies for earning yield across on-chain markets.
● Margin.trade: Upcoming cross-margin trading platform for 24/7 leveraged markets across crypto, commodities, and stocks.
● Private.trade: Upcoming decentralized trading project positioning itself around privacy-focused market infrastructure.
● Decibel.trade: Aptos-based decentralized exchange for on-chain perpetuals, bringing fast self-custodial trading and market settlement to DeFi users.
● Ethereal.trade: Decentralized exchange for spot and perpetuals trading, powered by USDe and built around high-performance on-chain markets.
● Gradient.trade: Off-market DeFi trading protocol using coordinated order routing and market-maker liquidity to enable price-impact-free token swaps.
● Peanut.trade: Crypto market-making and TGE services company offering DEX liquidity management, MEV protection, and algorithmic trading strategies.
● Hotstuff.trade: DeFi Layer 1 for confidential on-chain trading, with perps, spot, and options on one margin account.
● Oku.trade: DeFi trading platform for swaps, bridges, limit orders, and Uniswap v3 liquidity management across multiple chains.
● Hyena.trade: USDe-margined perpetuals exchange for trading on-chain markets with capital-efficient collateral, native rewards, and Hyperliquid-powered execution.
● Cro.trade: Trading app on Cronos offering real-time token swaps, trending token discovery, and portfolio tracking for on-chain users.
● Power.trade: Crypto options and perpetuals trading platform offering altcoin derivatives markets with mobile and web trading access.
● Fullstack.trade: Upcoming crypto trading platform positioning itself as an all-in-one front end for on-chain trading.
● Livo.trade: Ethereum token-launch platform for deploying ERC-20 tokens with bonding-curve pricing, fair launches, instant liquidity, and automatic Uniswap graduation.
● Figment.trade: AI-powered perpetuals trading platform where users create autonomous trading agents, run strategies, and compete in on-chain trading arenas.
Prediction Markets & Event Trading
● Opinion.trade: Decentralized prediction market platform for creating, trading, and resolving real-world event markets using on-chain infrastructure and AI-assisted oracles.
● Stand.trade: Prediction market trading platform for discovering strategies, tracking wallets, copy trading, alerts, and automated execution across markets like Polymarket and Kalshi.
● Alphawhale.trade: Prediction market platform for following top Polymarket traders, tracking whale activity, managing positions, and automating trading strategies.
● Kairos.trade: Upcoming prediction market platform for trading event-based markets, tracking opportunities, and positioning around future outcomes.
● VDEX.trade: Zero-knowledge trading platform for crypto, stocks, commodities, FX, and prediction market perps with self-custody and zero gas fees.
● Omen.trade: Prediction market platform offering funded accounts, market tracking, and trading access across prediction markets, perps, crypto, and equities.
● Alpha.trade: Upcoming prediction market platform for trading across Kalshi, Polymarket, Manifold, and other markets with AI-powered news and real-time insights.
Physical Trade, Logistics & Commodities
● OzaGlobal.trade: Alaska-based international trade company connecting businesses with Latin American suppliers through sourcing, logistics, customs compliance, and quality control.
● Azurite.trade: International logistics company transporting metals, raw materials, and oversized cargo through rail, road, ocean, and project freight services.
● Akhdar.trade: Agribusiness trading company sourcing and supplying grains, oils, and oilmeals across international commodity markets.
● Publiko.trade: International trade consultancy helping companies with market entry, logistics, incentives, regulatory compliance, and cross-border business development.
● EngineParts.trade: Slovakia-based exporter of genuine, aftermarket, new, used, and remanufactured engine parts for trucks, buses, agricultural, and earthmoving equipment.
Brokerages, CFDs & Traditional Trading
● Upscale.trade: Web3 prop-trading platform where users complete trading challenges to access simulated funded accounts and keep a share of profits.
● Composer.trade: Automated trading platform where users build, backtest, and execute algorithmic investment strategies without needing to code.
● Bolt.trade: Upcoming F&O strategy platform helping traders discover backtested setups with defined entry, target, and stop-loss levels.
● CFI.trade: Global online broker offering forex, stocks, indices, commodities, ETFs, and CFD trading through multi-asset platforms.
● Hello.trade: Upcoming trading platform for global access to stocks, commodities, ETFs, crypto, and leveraged perpetuals.
● Versus.trade: Online CFD broker offering multi-asset trading through MetaTrader 5, including its proprietary Versus Pairs product.
● VaultMarkets.trade: South African forex broker offering multi-asset trading, account types, education, and MT4/MT5 access for retail traders.
● Arrow.trade: India-focused ultra-low-latency trading and brokerage platform by iRage Capital for stocks, options, and futures trading.
Trade Finance, Capital Markets & Compliance
● Mesh.trade: Digital capital markets platform for issuing, tokenising, trading, settling, and managing financial assets through blockchain-based market infrastructure.
● Trustnet.trade: Cargodian compliance platform helping businesses screen partners for KYB, sanctions, UBO, PEP, and supply-chain due-diligence risks.
● 360tf.trade: Trade finance platform helping businesses and banks manage letters of credit, document checks, working capital, and transaction workflows.
Marketplaces, Distribution & Commerce
● Nostra.trade: European FMCG supplier importing and distributing global-brand coffee, sweets, and beverages through B2B wholesale and export channels.
● Energynat.trade: European importer and distributor of photovoltaic systems, supplying solar modules, inverters, mounting systems, carports, and related PV equipment.
● Wego.trade: B2B food and beverage marketplace connecting suppliers, distributors, retailers, and restaurants through online ordering, promotions, and ERP integrations.
● Vilde.trade: European home and garden brand supplying kitchen, bathroom, storage, decoration, garden, and seasonal products through B2B wholesale channels.
● B2B.trade: Wholesale marketplace connecting manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and business buyers across FMCG, apparel, electronics, auto goods, and other categories.
● Oland.trade: Poland-based distributor of household appliances and consumer electronics, supplying B2B partners with branded products and logistics support.
● Maishima.trade: Osaka outdoor marché complex near Maishima sports and leisure facilities, featuring food, retail, events, and bike rentals.
● Kitayama.trade: Japanese importer specializing in premium Argentinian wines, offering direct imports, wholesale partnerships, tastings, and online sales.
Gaming, NFTs & Digital Asset Marketplaces
● Tensor.trade: Solana NFT marketplace and trading platform for buying, selling, bidding on, and managing digital collectibles with pro trader tools.
● ArcRaiders.trade: Community marketplace for ARC Raiders players to list, discover, and safely trade in-game items, blueprints, and offers.
● Bloxy.trade: Roblox item marketplace for buying and selling in-game items with automated bots, instant delivery, and secure trading workflows.
Data, Intelligence & Trade Analytics
● Cloudcraft.trade: Crypto trading platform offering whale tracking, liquidity maps, AI analysis, and proprietary indicators for active traders.
● Glint.trade: Prediction market intelligence platform mapping news, social signals, and OSINT data to Polymarket and Kalshi markets in real time.
● Tina.trade: UN ESCAP trade intelligence platform helping policymakers analyze tariffs, trade agreements, NTMs, and bilateral flows for trade negotiations.
That level of popularity allowed us to aim higher with our .TRADE domains and land sales such as Maestro.
.TRADE's strong, descriptive appearance, single-syllable pronunciation, and growing collectible appeal make it a solid choice for trading-related brands.
Given the strength and staying power of categories such as crypto, prediction markets, and trading in general, we feel confident that .TRADE domains will continue gaining ground.
In our estimation, our top .TRADE domains, such as Zero.trade, Space.trade, and Neural.trade, are already worth six figures.
Once again, congrats to the buyer on acquiring Maestro.
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