U.S. lawmakers and experts warn that the U.S. severely lags behind China in shipbuilding capacity and urge action to build up the country’s ability to develop and produce weapons and other defense supplies to avoid war with China. China’s navy is already the world’s largest, and its shipbuilding capacity dwarfs that of the U.S. The ranking Democratic member of a congressional committee said last week that China can produce 359 oceangoing vessels for every one the U.S. can produce. He argues that inadequacies for the U.S. to produce warships and other weapons could invite war. National security adviser Jake Sullivan says the Biden administration is taking steps to address the problem but it will be a “generational project” to fix.
