China Dominates the Shipbuilding Industry

China has rapidly established itself as the world’s dominant shipbuilding power, marginalizing the United States and its allies in a strategically important industry. 

  1. China’s lead in the global commercial shipbuilding market is huge and growing. The country’s largest state-owned shipbuilder built more commercial vessels by tonnage in 2024 than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II. 
  2. Foreign companies, including firms based in many U.S.-allied countries, purchase 75 percent of ships built at China’s dual-use shipyards, funneling billions of dollars in revenue and transferring key technologies into the country’s naval industrial base. 
  3. Through its “military-civil fusion” strategy, China has integrated commercial and military production at many of its shipyards, giving its People’s Liberation Army Navy access to infrastructure, investment, and intellectual property acquired from commercial contracts. 

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Matthew P. Funaiole

Matthew P. Funaiole

Vice President, iDeas Lab, Andreas C. Dracopoulos Chair in Innovation and Senior Fellow, China Power Project
Brian Hart

Brian Hart

Deputy Director and Fellow, China Power Project

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