Forced Labourers As Hegemonic Tools

"Foreign cartels raised the cost of spot contracts on certain shipping lanes by up to 1,000 percent while making a record $190 billion in windfall profits. They also rejected hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. agricultural exports, preferring to race back to China with empty containers to fill with more profitable Chinese imports while American-grown food rotted on the docks":

https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/05/american-shipbuilding-decline/682945

"The U.S. would need more than 100 fuel tankers in the event of a conflict in the Pacific. It has access to about 15..."

"Meanwhile, shipyards in Asia began to enjoy massive government subsidies..."

"Worse, at a time of escalating tensions with China, the United States has virtually no surge capacity to build naval or sealift ships. In fact, China builds all the commercial ships that the U.S. government contracts to provide military support."