Business or Power?

China, the world's largest exporter, has stakes in global ports. Its merchant ships are under party control. Western experts worry about espionage, economic coercion and military expansion

- DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

INCHING UP THE ELBE RIVER TO THE GERMAN port of Hamburg in early September, colorful containers stacked on deck like outsized pieces of Lego, the Libra looked like any other massive vessel plying the world's oceans. Yet she was more than a commercial ship.

As well as containers, the Libra carried a branch of the Communist Party of China (CCP), its political commissars and a crew who must pledge loyalty to the party and to increasing China's economic power and national strength. The party calls ships like the Libra "floating fortresses." These vessels are at the forefront of long-term efforts by the CCP to strengthen its hold on global shipping and logistics, prompting concerns in some Western countries over risks ranging from espionage to economic coercion, digital domination and military expansion.

Ships like the Libra belonging to China COSCO Shipping Corporation are increasingly evident at nearly 100 ports where it and other Chinese companies have stakes. These include five ports in the U.S.: in Miami, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Seattle. "Trade is the circulatory system for the planet," says Isaac B. Kardon, a maritime specialist and Chinese linguist at the U.S. Naval War College on Rhode Island. "Ports are the nodes."

Defenders of the investments say they simply make commercial sense for the world's biggest exporter. Critics see potential for power projection by a country that fuses political, business and military interests. About one-third of the ports where Chinese companies have made commercial investments have hosted ships of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) navy.

Sailing for the Motherland