China has been investing in ports around the world for decades. A new report from AidData, a research lab at William and Mary, shows those investments have added up to a major advantage in the race for maritime dominance.
“It's sort of becoming newsworthy that China has this vast maritime empire,” said Alex Wooley, the director of partnerships and communications at AidData and the report’s lead author.
The report published this month looks at where China has financed ports and harbors — and why. It found that between 2000 and 2025, China provided loans and grants worth around $24 billion for 168 ports across 90 countries.
“All of this is of interest because countries like the U.S., organizations like the EU are now trying to get into this business themselves,” Wooley said. “For years, western agencies did not really invest in this hard infrastructure, like ports, whereas China has been doing so for more than 25 years.”
WHRO sat down with Wooley to discuss China’s global maritime presence and what that presence looks like in Hampton Roads.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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WHRO: What are the main findings of the report?
Alex Wooley: One is just the sheer scale and scope of China's investments overseas, like how vast the empire is of these ports. … They want to assure themselves that they have these trade routes that include the ports, that they are secure, free from interference, and that they can guarantee that they'll have everything they need for their economy, for their livelihood.
Increasingly, they locate their ports where critical resources are, things like transition minerals, which are minerals you need for the defense industry and electric vehicles … China is very clearly building ports where it thinks it can access these key minerals. That's a very conscious decision.
We also find that China, when it builds a port somewhere in the world, it's more likely to be subsequently hosting the Chinese military on visits and exchanges. So, if it builds a port, you're more likely to see either a ship visit or an exchange with the Chinese military. These ties between the commercial and the military are there.
And we find like 45% of China's overseas investments for ports happen in wealthy countries. This was a little bit of a surprise, in part, because a lot of these wealthy countries have been telling poorer countries, ‘Don't borrow from China, don't get sucked into what's called a debt trap.’
WHRO: What are some examples of those wealthy countries?
AW: Private sector companies in China have made loans to acquire large stakes in Hamburg in Germany, in Rotterdam (in the Netherlands). The government of China, through its entities, has invested heavily in Valencia in Spain. The case that everyone flags is Piraeus in Greece, which is considered the gateway to southern Europe … China has also invested heavily in Australia.
From a geopolitical point of view, what's interesting about that is that Australia is one of the key allies in this submarine building alliance called AUKUS, with the United States, with Britain. Australia's building and upgrading where its naval bases will be to host nuclear submarines. China has now built ports all around Australia.
WHRO: The Port of Virginia has not received an investment directly from China, but China still has a presence there. Can you explain what that presence is like?
AW: Primarily, it consists of trade relationships. The ships that come and go have been built in China or are operated by Chinese shipping lines. And then the Port of Virginia has also bought these massive shore side cranes, which are from a company called ZPMC. These are all relatively recent purchases in the past couple of years. And to be fair, all the ports basically up and down the East Coast and West Coast of the USA have also bought these same enormous cranes.
WHRO: How does this study relate to Hampton Roads?
AW: We look at Hampton Roads from a couple of different points of view. So one is, obviously, it’s a huge natural harbor and has been used continuously by the U.S. for 150 years as a major merchant ship port. It's also home to Newport News Shipbuilding, which is the only manufacturer of the U.S.’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and one of two manufacturers of nuclear-powered submarines. In addition, it's home to the Norfolk Naval Station, the largest naval base in the world, and lots of warship shipyard repair yards.
You would naturally assume that this is like a bastion of national security and any other country or power would be excluded. But as we document, China is here too, and in lots of different ways.
If you look on a map where Newport News Shipbuilding is located, roughly a mile or so down the harbor front are these vast coal yards … A lot of people may not realize that much of that coal is going to China.
It's coming from Appalachia … 5,000 rail cars a week come through Williamsburg carrying coal. They go down to Newport News.
And there's a type of coal called met coal – metallurgical coal – and that coal is essential to making steel.
China is a huge consumer of met coal, because it has a vast steel making industry, including making warships using steel. It sells at a higher price than what's called thermal coal, which is the coal we use for heating and power plants.
You have Newport News shipbuilding building ships for the US Navy. A mile away, you have coal destined to make steel in China, and that steel may be made to make Chinese warships.
The U.S. is keen to have that business, because they charge more for this type of coal. But from China's point of view, it (the amount of coal coming from the U.S.) is a relatively small drop in the ocean — no pun intended …
These container ports rely on these huge cranes, and you see them when you're driving around Hampton Roads. Those cranes need to be able to span across a huge merchant ship, pick up these containers and drop them on the shore. China virtually controls that entire market. These enormous cranes are built in China, and then they're brought here. There's not really a domestic manufacturer of these cranes. And so, we look at where these cranes have been funded, and what ports they've been put in.
There's been a little bit of political controversy about this here in the U.S., because there's concerns that the cranes can be enabled to spy on what's going on in the location where they're installed, they can be sending back data to China. A lot of precautions are taken by U.S. ports and harbors to make sure that they're scrubbed clean.
A lot of people think this is scare-mongering and is not really the case, but it is another example of U.S. manufacturing, where it’s really fallen behind, and here's key infrastructure that China really controls.
WHRO: Why is it important for someone in Hampton Roads to understand China's maritime footprint, globally and locally?
AW: We're trying to make it clear that our economies, our livelihoods, our trade, are very much intertwined.
To read more, the report and the underlying dataset are both available at aiddata.org.
