International shipping would shut down As a general rule of thumb, that's not true. From time to time I work with merchant shipping, particularly in times and

International shipping would shut down As a general rule of thumb, that's not true. From time to time I work with merchant shipping, particularly in times and areas of serious risk (such as warzones) and they don't stop. They happily traversed the straits of Hormuz while missiles were being fired across it. They kept serving Libya during the civil war, with shipping companies literally calling ahead to check which port to head for. They won't stop unless someone starts attacking them specifically, and even then they'll just be going around. China doesn't have the global reach to threaten shipping beyond what is, on the global scale, a small range, and threatening the shipping in their own waters would harm them more than anyone else.