Bob Mackin
Could British Columbia taxpayers unwittingly subsidize Chinese naval threats to Taiwan while sinking the Canadian shipbuilding industry?
BC Ferries announced June 10 that a Chinese shipyard will build four new vessels. It chose China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI Weihai), but did not disclose the value of the contract for the new diesel-battery hybrid ships, to be delivered between 2029 and 2031.
Parent CMI is headquartered in Hong Kong and has seven shipbuilding and repair bases, specializing in ferries, cruise ships and chemical tankers. Its website called CMI “one of the three major state-owned marine equipment manufacturing groups in China.”
Artist’s rendering of one of the four new BC Ferries to be built in China. (BC Ferries)
Last August, the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMSA) said the Canadian government should slap a 100% tariff on Chinese-built ships and prohibit any government entity or Crown corporation from acquiring a Chinese-built vessel. CMSA cited national security, human rights and economic concerns.
“As China’s navy continues to grow, it increasingly uses its fleet to challenge Canadian interests and those of our allies in regions extending even to our own Arctic waters,” said the CMSA statement.
National security risk
A report in March by the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. branded China’s “huge and growing” commercial shipbuilding industry as a national security risk.
China has integrated commercial and military production at many shipyards, “giving its People’s Liberation Army Navy access to infrastructure, investment, and intellectual property acquired from commercial contracts,” said the Center’s report, which said foreign orders have helped China spend less to modernize its naval fleet.
Foreign countries, including U.S. allies, buy three-quarters of ships from China’s dual-use shipyards, thus “funnelling billions of dollars in revenue and transferring key technologies into the PRC’s naval industrial base.”
A U.S. Trade Representative investigation said the Chinese shipbuilding supply chain benefits from a “lack of effective labour rights and the use of forced or compulsory labour. Likewise, China’s non-market excess capacity in inputs, such as steel, advantage downstream Chinese enterprises.”
The April executive summary said China controls a fifth of the world’s commercial shipping fleet and its goal is to displace foreign competitors and diminish choice.
“China has demonstrated in the past its willingness to weaponize dependencies for purposes of economic coercion. China’s targeting of these sectors for dominance is therefore unreasonable also due to the creation of dependencies and resulting vulnerabilities and risks.
NDP used to champion made-in-B.C. ships
While in opposition, the NDP slammed the BC Liberal government and BC Ferries for spending $165 million on three ships from Remontowa Shipbuilding SA in Gdansk, Poland. Then-transportation critic Claire Trevena proposed a provincial shipbuilding bill in 2014, aimed at ensuring vessels built with public money are built in Canada.
The announcement came while Premier David Eby is on a trade mission in South Korea. Transportation minister Mike Farnworth said he was disappointed BC Ferries opted to do business with “any country that is actively harming Canada’s economy.”
But he called BC Ferries an independent company, which is misleading. While technically private, the only shareholder is the B.C. government.
Additionally, the NDP government appoints board members, such as chair and former finance minister Joy MacPhail and former NDP government bureaucrats Eric Denhoff and Lecia Stewart.
NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.
