The US has blacklisted China’s largest shipping line and two shipbuilders over alleged links with the People’s Liberation Army, as Washington turns its attention to the country’s massive maritime sector.
Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. was named in a Federal Register filing on Tuesday, qualifying it as a Chinese military company as determined by the Pentagon, along with China State Shipbuilding Corp. and China Shipbuilding Trading Co. While the blacklist carries no specific penalties, it discourages US firms from dealing with those companies.
It also signals increased scrutiny of marine transport and shipbuilding as Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
prepares to return to the White House. China has the world’s largest shipbuilding sector, producing more than half of merchant vessels globally, while the US industry has virtually collapsed over the last generation.
Chinese shipbuilders accounted for almost 60% of the worldwide orderbook in the first quarter of last year, according to shipbroker BRS. The US’s nervousness over this dominance comes as shipping lines and ports become increasingly important as arenas of geopolitical competition, with Covid-19 and its aftermath exposing the fragility of global supply chains.
Washington telegraphed its unease over China’s shipbuilding industry at Senate hearings last year. The US builds only one container ship for every 359 such vessels that China constructs, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic congressman for Illinois, said at the time.
The latest Pentagon blacklist also included Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., as well as Chinese oil major Cnooc Ltd.
Cosco shares fell as much as 4.4% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, outpacing a decline in the city’s benchmark stock index, while Cnooc was down as much 1.6%.
The two companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Both Cosco and Cnooc have been previously targeted by Washington. Cosco was sanctioned in 2019 for hauling Iranian oil, with those penalties lifted in 2020. Cnooc was one of the earliest Chinese state-owned enterprises to be hit with US sanctions and was also added to a Pentagon blacklist in 2021.
Cnooc, meanwhile, has two onshore shale oil and gas projects in the US, two deepwater projects and interests in several other exploration blocks in the US Gulf of Mexico, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Rising tensions with Washington could cause the company to reassess its ownership of those assets, it said in a note late last month.
Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. was named in a Federal Register filing on Tuesday, qualifying it as a Chinese military company as determined by the Pentagon, along with China State Shipbuilding Corp. and China Shipbuilding Trading Co. While the blacklist carries no specific penalties, it discourages US firms from dealing with those companies.
It also signals increased scrutiny of marine transport and shipbuilding as Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...prepares to return to the White House. China has the world’s largest shipbuilding sector, producing more than half of merchant vessels globally, while the US industry has virtually collapsed over the last generation.
Chinese shipbuilders accounted for almost 60% of the worldwide orderbook in the first quarter of last year, according to shipbroker BRS. The US’s nervousness over this dominance comes as shipping lines and ports become increasingly important as arenas of geopolitical competition, with Covid-19 and its aftermath exposing the fragility of global supply chains.
Washington telegraphed its unease over China’s shipbuilding industry at Senate hearings last year. The US builds only one container ship for every 359 such vessels that China constructs, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic congressman for Illinois, said at the time.
The latest Pentagon blacklist also included Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., as well as Chinese oil major Cnooc Ltd.
Cosco shares fell as much as 4.4% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, outpacing a decline in the city’s benchmark stock index, while Cnooc was down as much 1.6%.
The two companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Both Cosco and Cnooc have been previously targeted by Washington. Cosco was sanctioned in 2019 for hauling Iranian oil, with those penalties lifted in 2020. Cnooc was one of the earliest Chinese state-owned enterprises to be hit with US sanctions and was also added to a Pentagon blacklist in 2021.
Cnooc, meanwhile, has two onshore shale oil and gas projects in the US, two deepwater projects and interests in several other exploration blocks in the US Gulf of Mexico, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Rising tensions with Washington could cause the company to reassess its ownership of those assets, it said in a note late last month.
The Biden administration on Tuesday blacklisted the same Chinese shipping company over its ties to the Chinese military that Hunter Biden was set to partner with in a failed railway deal in Southern Europe.
The Department of Defense added the China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO), the largest shipping company in China, to the list identifying “Chinese military companies” in the United States along with other Chinese shipbuilders. Though listed companies do not face penalties, U.S. companies are discouraged from pursuing business relationships with them.
HUNTER COURTED CHINESE COMPANY
As a state-owned enterprise, COSCO has long faced scrutiny for its ties to the People’s Liberation Army and its participation is expanding the influence of the Chinese Communist Party across the globe, even as the United States’ own commercial maritime power is on the decline.
Yet, Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and his business partners in 2015 courted COSCO for funding in an acquisition deal. The project was a proposed acquisition of the Greek national railway TrainOSE which was set to be privatized. This was just one of many deals the younger Biden organized with Chinese partners while his father was Barack Obama’s vice president.
Evidence shows Hunter Biden also provided real access to his father to his business partners, despite the president having claimed repeatedly that “I have never spoken to my son about his overbusiness dealings.” This deal, emails show, was no different.
Tech Giant Tencent Founder Helps Yale 'Form New Partnerships' in China. Ma Huateng has served on the Yale Center Beijing advisory board since 2015.
Not just three companies but 134:
Ford’s Partner in Billion-Dollar Michigan EV Factory Is a Chinese Military Company, Pentagon SaysMichigan Democrats gave nearly $2 billion in direct subsidies and tax breaks to Ford's project with CATL
The Department of Defense added Chinese electric vehicle battery maker CATL—which Ford Motor Company has partnered with on a billion-dollar EV project in Michigan—to a list of companies that actively aid China's military.
Burying the lede a little…
The Pentagon published documents Tuesday designating CATL and 133 other companies to its Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies, which the Department of Defense is required to update on an annual basis.Lawmakers, security experts, and former federal officials have warned for years that the China-based CATL maintains strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party infrastructure even as the firm continues to develop a high-profile EV project with Ford in Michigan.
CATL's inclusion on the list is another black eye for both Ford's struggling EV business and Democrats' climate ambitions—the Ford-CATL project was made possible by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D., Mich.), whose administration helped fund it with nearly $2 billion in direct subsidies and tax breaks. It is the latest evidence of the Chinese government's stranglehold on global green energy supply chains.