The United States issued a blunt warning to the International Maritime Organization on Wednesday: China is converting its dominance over global shipping into a weapon, and every nation with a coastline should be paying attention.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Warren Stephens delivered the message directly to the IMO Council, telling member states that Beijing has spent years acquiring port concessions, container terminals, and shipping infrastructure not for commercial gain, but to build a system of geopolitical leverage it can deploy against any government that defies it.
“China’s systematic effort to use maritime power as an instrument of political coercion” is a “challenge that we cannot afford to ignore,” Stephens said in remarks later posted to his Truth Social account.
The warning lands amid a broader reshaping of U.S. foreign policy centered on maritime power. China currently builds more than half of the world’s commercial ships. It dominates production of ship-to-shore cranes and shipping containers. And it has quietly positioned its state-linked enterprises at chokepoints across the globe.
Stephens cited the Panama Canal as a recent case study. Panama’s Supreme Court ruled in recent months that CK Hutchison’s port concessions at the Balboa and Cristobal terminals were unconstitutional. Those terminals sit at opposite ends of one of the world’s most strategically critical trade corridors. Beijing’s response, Stephens said, was “swift and punishing,” with China targeting Panama-flagged vessels in what U.S. officials characterized as retaliation against Panamanian sovereignty.
“What happened to Panama is a warning to every nation in this room,” Stephens told the council.
He pressed member states to scrutinize contracts allowing foreign entities, particularly state-linked Chinese enterprises, to operate critical port infrastructure. “When a country allows a foreign power or its proxies to control its ports, it does not simply accept a commercial arrangement,” he said. “It accepts a vulnerability.”
The warning connects directly to President Trump’s renewed push for U.S. control over Greenland, which he reiterated Wednesday at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Greenland’s position between the Arctic and North Atlantic gives it strategic significance for any nation seeking to control polar shipping routes.
“It’s surrounded by China ships and Russian ships,” Trump said at the summit. “Greenland should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.”
Denmark vowed to defend its territory, but Trump did not back down. He suggested the U.S. could reconsider its European troop presence if NATO allies continue to resist American security priorities.
The U.S. Maritime Transportation System, Stephens noted, supports $5.4 trillion in economic activity annually and nearly 30 million American jobs. That commercial backbone, he argued, depends on a free and open maritime order that China is actively working to undermine.
“A free and open ocean is not guaranteed,” Stephens said. “It must be defended.”
The Chinese government rejected the characterization, repeating its standard position that its overseas infrastructure investments are commercial partnerships that support global development.
