The United States is facing a growing challenge to its naval power as China expands its fleet and leverages a shipbuilding industry that is vastly larger than America's. China had 350 warships in 2020, compared with 293 for the United States, according to a U.S. Department of Defense report. Beijing's fleet is projected to reach 435 ships by 2030, while Washington's goal of adding 58 ships to the U.S. Navy is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. The disparity extends well beyond the military. Over the past 25 years, China's share of global shipbuilding tonnage has risen from about 5% to more than 50%. The United States, meanwhile, accounted for just 0.03% of global shipbuilding tonnage in 2025. China's shipbuilding advantage China's enormous commercial shipyards produce container ships, tankers and other vessels alongside military ships, allowing the country to maintain a large pool of skilled workers and a vast network of suppliers and production facilities that can support naval construction. Commercial shipbuilding also provides workers with skills that transfer directly to military production. Welders, pipefitters and electricians who work on civilian vessels develop expertise that can be applied to the construction of complex naval platforms. After World War II, leadership in commercial shipbuilding shifted from Europe to Japan, driven by lower costs and new production methods, before moving to South Korea and eventually China. The United States, by contrast, progressively withdrew from commercial shipbuilding, falling to just 0.03% of global shipbuilding tonnage by 2025. Europe's exception and America's decline Europe has followed a different path, preserving a specialized civilian shipbuilding sector focused on cruise ships, icebreakers and vessels serving the offshore energy industry. That model helps sustain the broader industrial base on which the defense sector depends. "You have to cultivate, you have to protect, civilian shipbuilding," said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Fincantieri. He has emphasized the technical complexity of modern commercial vessels, comparing the engineering and systems involved in a large cruise ship to those required to operate a city of 10,000 people. In the United States, the Jones Act of 1920 has long been part of the debate over domestic shipbuilding. The law was designed in part to protect the U.S. merchant marine by requiring vessels engaged in domestic commerce to meet U.S. construction, ownership and flagging requirements. Critics argue that the system has reduced competition and contributed to the high cost of building ships in American yards. The consequences are now affecting the military. Four out of five U.S. military shipbuilding programs are behind schedule, while the delivery of two new aircraft carriers has been delayed by more than 24 months. Washington tries to rebuild A growing awareness of the problem has reopened the political debate in Washington. The bipartisan Ships for America Act aims to bring 250 civilian vessels into the U.S. fleet over the course of a decade, while the government's maritime action plan includes a $20 billion fund for the industry. The United States has also begun strategic partnerships with major South Korean shipbuilders to modernize aging American facilities and train a new generation of shipyard workers. But restarting an industry that has declined for decades cannot be accomplished with a single law or an infusion of capital. New funding can expand facilities, but it cannot quickly replace the skilled workforce, suppliers and production expertise that have disappeared. China already has the shipyards, workers and commercial demand needed to sustain production on a massive scale. The United States is now trying to rebuild that capacity while simultaneously expanding its Navy. The challenge for Washington, therefore, is not simply how to build more warships. It is how to rebuild the civilian shipbuilding industry that can provide the industrial capacity needed to sustain them.