The shipbuilding industry in the United States has always been a thorny issue, and now it has been hit by Chinese sanctions, making it even more difficult for the US Navy to produce warships.

According to China Central Television News, on the 25th, our Ministry of Commerce announced that it would add Huntington Ingalls Industries, Flat Earth Management Company, and Global Dimensions to the export control list, prohibiting exports of dual-use items to these three American companies.

Now that the Ministry of Commerce has issued a notice, let's take a brief look at these three American companies that have been "blacklisted."

First is the Flat Earth Management Company. Although this company claims to be a "construction contractor," most of its projects are related to the US Department of Defense, and it has an office in Taiwan.

Chris Decker (left) attended the defense forum of the Taiwan authorities

In June this year, at the "Defense Industry Forum" organized by the Taiwan authorities, Chris Decker, president of the Flat Earth Management Company, was one of the invited American guests. Therefore, given the company's secret relationship with the Pentagon, it is easy to imagine what the so-called "office in Taiwan" of this American company is doing.

Compared to the Flat Earth Management Company, Global Dimensions has more obvious covert activities regarding the Taiwan issue: the company also has an office in Taiwan, but you may not guess what this American company does.

On the surface, Global Dimensions appears to be a consulting services company, but in reality, the company's true position is that of a "military contractor," specializing in providing special forces training and support services, and has signed cooperation contracts with the US Special Operations Command.

American military contractors attempt to train Taiwanese people into "special forces"

Last year, the website "Intelligence Online" reported that Global Dimensions attempted to promote its special forces training program to the Taiwan authorities. However, it should be noted that the company's target customers were not the Taiwan military, but rather civilians in Taiwan. In other words, this American military contractor tried to train Taiwanese citizens into half-baked "special forces" to fight against the PLA in urban warfare.

Finally, there is Huntington Ingalls Industries, which is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States. It owns two major shipyards, Newport News and Ingalls. The Newport News Shipyard is not only the only shipyard in the United States capable of designing, building, and performing major repairs and refueling of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, but it is also one of the two shipyards in the United States that can build nuclear submarines.

After being sanctioned by China, it is doubtful whether the US aircraft carrier can be built anymore

The Ingalls Shipyard is responsible for building the US Navy's surface combat ships and amphibious ships, and is the main manufacturer of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, and the America-class amphibious assault ships. About 70% of the US Navy's vessels are built by this shipyard.

It is well known that although the United States proposed many years ago to achieve "de-Chinaization" of the defense supply chain, it has not yet managed to get rid of its dependence on Chinese equipment and components, such as cranes, semiconductors, and electronic components.

In August this year, a report released by the US think tank "Hudson Institute" stated that the Ford-class aircraft carrier alone requires over 6,500 Chinese semiconductors to operate, and other US naval vessels and aircraft also rely on thousands of Chinese semiconductors to be put into use.

Overhead crane at Newport News Shipyard

From 2014 to 2022, the US reliance on Chinese electronic products increased by 600%, and currently, 40% of the semiconductors required for US weapons systems and related infrastructure come from China.

On the other hand, Huntington Ingalls Industries is not only responsible for building warships for the US Navy, but it is also the core of Trump's "revitalizing the shipbuilding industry" plan. Therefore, after being sanctioned, the company will undoubtedly further exacerbate delays in the maintenance and construction of US naval vessels.

Therefore, the recent action by our Ministry of Commerce to "blacklist" Huntington Ingalls Industries can be said to precisely strike at the weakness of the US military shipbuilding industry, and severely damage Trump's ambition of "making the shipbuilding industry great again." In a way, it also indirectly "helped" the US "demilitarization."

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7554283001895551539/

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