DECOUPLING: China’s Biggest Shipping Line Added to US Military Blacklist.

The US has blacklisted China’s largest shipping line and two shipbuilders over alleged links with the People’s Liberation Army, as Washington turns its attention to the country’s massive maritime sector.

Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. was named in a Federal Register filing on Tuesday, qualifying it as a Chinese military company as determined by the Pentagon, along with China State Shipbuilding Corp. and China Shipbuilding Trading Co. While the blacklist carries no specific penalties, it discourages US firms from dealing with those companies.

It also signals increased scrutiny of marine transport and shipbuilding as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House. China has the world’s largest shipbuilding sector, producing more than half of merchant vessels globally, while the US industry has virtually collapsed over the last generation.

It’s criminal — and bipartisan — what Congress has allowed to happen to our shipbuilding, maintenance, Navy, and merchant marine.