China has acquired a network of strategically important ports around the world and has effectively become the largest state-owned operator of maritime infrastructure controlling global supply chains, writes US newspaper The Washington Post.
The publication writes that most of the investments were made by companies owned by the Chinese government.
“This has effectively made Beijing and the Communist Party of China the largest operator of ports that lie at the centre of global supply chains,” the journalists note.
A decade ago, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is said to have launched the Maritime Silk Road, the oceanic component of the One Belt, One Road initiative, which aims, among other things, to give China access to global markets through investment in transport infrastructure.
In particular, China has already gained a significant stake in the network of global ports that are central to world trade. The United States and its allies, meanwhile, are increasingly concerned about the “potential military implications” of such Chinese activities.
Thus, China now owns or operates ports and terminals in nearly 100 locations in more than 50 countries, spanning all continents and oceans. Many of them are located along the most strategically important waterways.
In an article for InsideOver, analyst Federico Giuliani noted that Russia, China and North Korea have created a triangle of death in the Pacific Ocean that threatens the United States.