Living on the edge?

Just back from a long vacation that took me up the South China Sea and across the Formosa/Taiwan straights to the island of Taiwan. I had rashly read this book before boarding the ship in Singapore. It is a great read.

Spoiler alert: The story is about China getting serious about taking over Taiwan, and the geopolitical wrangling that goes on around that. The US president, Jack Ryan, keeps an even hand and miraculously saves the day, with help from his covert intelligence agencies working together seamlessly.

I wonder how that would unravel with today's players?

What we saw as we sailed from Singapore to Tokyo:

• Many ships waiting to get into ports and unload/load.
• Really busy seaway along the South China Sea
• Huge port operations in every port
• Massive stockpiles of containers

I think global ocean logistics is incredibly inefficient! We seem to have enough infrastructure. It seemed as if Kobe to Tokyo was one huge industrial port.

But this may be irrelevant, because we may be shipping less and less merchandise across the globe. This other book is eerily prescient of the geo-political developments since it was published. It paints a picture of regional economies with limited trade between them. I strongly suggest you read it! https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/i-had-idea-shipping-kids-were-important-nicholas-seiersen-l12oc

To misquote John Lennon, "imagine everything you buy coming from around the corner - local/regional sourcing. I wonder if you can"