Naval War College Review Volume 60 Article 7 Number 1 Winter 2007 Merchant Shipping in a Chinese Blockade of Taiwan Michael C. Grubb Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Grubb, Michael C. (2007) "Merchant Shipping in a Chinese Blockade of Taiwan," Naval War College Review: Vol. 60 : No. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol60/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen Grubb: Merchant Shipping in a Chinese Blockade of Taiwan MERCHANT SHIPPING IN A CHINESE BLOCKADE OF TAIWAN Lieutenant Michael C. Grubb, U.S. Navy here is a substantial literature on the various methods and tactics the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) could employ to enforce a T 1 naval blockade of Taiwan during a Taiwan Strait crisis. However, there has been very little assessment of how the qualities of today’s global maritime shipping industry might affect the effectiveness of a blockade. If China chose to imple- ment a blockade, would the global maritime industry continue to utilize Tai- wan’s ports and support its import/export trade in the face of Chinese threats? If international merchant shipping abandoned the Taiwan market, does the mari- time industry of the Republic of China have sufficient capacity to keep its supply lines filled on its own? This article attempts to answer these questions, making the case that the global maritime trade industry is not likely to support Taiwan’s seaborne trade in the face of a PRC blockade, leaving Taiwan’s merchant fleet to meet the is- land’s strategic resupply needs.