That seems so complicated.
Couldn't you just make the McKinseyite spawn of Marxist Gramscian Professor Joseph Buttigieg the Secretary of Transportation?
From Business Insider, October 26:
- The Chinese military is looking at options for attacking an enemy port, Chinese media reported.
- The PLA recently conducted its first test exploring port destruction with underwater explosives.
- "If we can use stealthy ways, like underwater explosions, to destroy the ports, we can kill off the enemy's war potential," said a Chinese officer.
The Chinese military is thinking about how to stealthily destroy a naval port to cripple an adversary's capabilities and hinder its ability to fight, a People's Liberation Army Navy officer explained to state media after a recent explosive test that was reportedly meant to simulate an attack on a port.
The Chinese military, through a PLA Naval Research Academy institute, recently detonated underwater explosives at an unidentified port.
Sensors set up at important structural points gathered data on the damage the port sustained. Chinese media said the data "will provide scientific support to attack hostile ports in a real war."
The test was the first of its kind for the Chinese military, according to CCTV, a state-run broadcaster which aired its report on the testing over the weekend. Chinese media did not say when the test was carried out, only noting that it happened recently.
The recent test explored the impact that different weapons might have on an operational port in an actual conflict scenario. The explosion reportedly destroyed the testing terminal.
Zhao Pengduo, who Chinese media identified as a captain and the deputy director of the Naval Port Demolition Test Program, highlighted the military's thinking behind the test in his interview with CCTV.
Zhao said that naval bases and ports are valuable targets because they are used to support logistics vessels that move munitions, fuel and other essential supplies to the frontlines of a fight.
He told Chinese media that "if we can use stealthy ways, like underwater explosions, to destroy the ports, we can kill off the enemy's war potential," according to a Global Times translation of his remarks....
....MUCH MORE
Very related:
"China’s strategic investments in Europe: The case of maritime ports"
Shipping: "China Makes Waves, Seeking To Control World Shipping"
Keeping track of Chinese investment in other nation's ports could be a full-time job, and that is just one aspect of what they are doing. Good luck to the EU and MENA, they are going to need it....
*****
*Starting with the Bosporus/Dardanelles between the Black and Mediterranean Seas:
"China will buy Turkey on the cheap"
Why Turkey is Important
And the Panama Canal:
China Will Help Panama Secure the Canal Against Terrorists
"Don't Fear China's Arctic Takeover"
And all of a sudden you have China on-site on three of the world's MAJOR shipping chokepoints and what could very well become the fourth at the Bering Straits.
....It's just that, as we've seen over the last year, supply lines are fragile, a weak spot even without unfriendlies doing an interdiction.I suppose somebody should keep an eye on Morocco to note if the Chinese set up camp on the Straits of Gibraltar.
Should someone actively attempt to halt transportation it would make the Ever Given snafu look like child's play. As just one example, China has been very active in extending their belt and road initiative in Panama, including a $1.4 billion bridge over the canal and rail and other infrastructure.
And that's just one potential flashpoint. The Chinese influence in Brazil, hitherto based on VALE and iron ore could potentially go exponential as Brazil expands/modernizes its shipping and rail infrastructure. And then there's Australia...and...
