The centerpiece of the Chinese Communist Party’s military buildup is the Chinese Navy. With an estimated 400 ships and submarines, the Chinese Navy is already larger than the US Navy, which currently consists of 288 combatants. Between 2015 and 2017, Chinese shipyards launched twice as many tons worth of naval vessels as their US counterparts.15 China is turning out nearly a dozen new ships per year toward its goal of putting to sea a total fleet of 550 ships and submarines in ten years.
