China has the capacity to build PLA combat ships at 200 times the rate that the US can, per leaked US Navy intelligence

China has the capacity to build PLA combat ships at 200 times the rate that the US can, per leaked US Navy intelligence

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan

• China's shipbuilding capacity has dwarfed US capabilities, per leaked US Navy intelligence.

• A Navy spokesperson confirmed the leaked material's authenticity to Fox News Digital.

• China has the world's largest navy and could have a fleet of 440 ships by 2030, per the Pentagon. 
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China's shipbuilding capacity is 232 times greater than the US, per leaked US Navy intelligence.

A leaked US Navy briefing slide with the information circulated online in July, per The War Zone, an online newsletter. The slide was titled "PLAN vs. USN Naval Force Laydown," and appeared to be marked "unclassified."

According to the data seen in the slide, China's shipyards have a capacity of over 23.2 million tons, more than 232 times greater than the US capacity of less than 100,000 tons.

The slide also appears to contrast the "battle force composition" of both navies, taking into account "combatant ships, submarines, mine warfare ships, major amphibious ships, and large combat support auxiliary ships."

A US Navy spokesperson told Fox News Digital in an article published on September 14 that the briefing slide is authentic.

The spokesperson said the slide "provides context and trends on China's shipbuilding capacity," but warned that the Navy did not intend for it to be read as a comprehensive "deep dive" into China's commercial shipbuilding industry.

"The slide was developed by the Office of Naval Intelligence from multiple public sources as part of an overall brief on strategic competition," the spokesperson said.

China has been hard at work at bolstering its naval capabilities. The country has the world's largest navy, with more than 355 vessels in its fleet, per a US Naval Institutereport from 2021.

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