China exported 187 high-end liquid cargo vessels in the first five months of 2026, with a total value exceeding 64.3 billion yuan (about 9.49 billion U.S. dollars), up 188.8 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data.
Liquid cargo vessels are specially designed for transporting crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), ranking among the ship categories with the highest added value in the maritime industry. Recently, two large-scale LNG vessels, each with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters and built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. under China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), were officially delivered in Shanghai. "Our clients are the world's leading oil and gas companies. Our current order book for LNG carriers accounts for more than 20 percent of the global market, and we are basically able to deliver one vessel per month," said Wang Jiaying, general manager assistant at the shipbuilding group.
In the same period, the country exported a total of 2,637 vessels, with a total value exceeding 170 billion yuan (about 25.09 billion U.S. dollars), up 22.5 percent year-on-year.
China records 188.8 pct increase in liquid cargo vessel export in Jan-May period
Rally participants gathered in the Japanese capital on Aug 9, which also marked the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, to voice strong opposition to the government's push to boost defense spending and revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the national Constitution.
Holding anti-war placards, chanting anti-war slogans, protesters warned that remilitarizing the nation would betray its pacifist ideals and endanger future generations.
"Defense spending keeps increasing. Based on Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan pledged never to wage war again, yet it keeps strengthening its military. I find this extremely dangerous. They are also trying to revise Article 9. So I believe that for the sake of future young people and children, Article 9 must never be revised. Japan decided never to repeat the mistakes of waging a war after its defeat in WWII. I think we should continue to safeguard that commitment," said a rally participant.
For many in the crowd, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a powerful moral compass as they believe that militarization offers no path forward for a nation that knows the devastation of war firsthand.
"Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered atomic bombings. Yet now Japan is going to deploy missiles. I believe Japan must never possess nuclear weapons," said another rally participant.
"I believe Japan has no future if it goes down the path of militarization. Nuclear weapons are absolutely bad for Japan," said a third woman, also a rally participant.
Beyond moral objections, some demonstrators said that Japan's economic vulnerabilities articulate that saber-rattling is a luxury the country cannot afford.
"I can't help but wonder what on earth a country with only a 36 percent food self-sufficiency rate would be fighting with. I have always been opposed to war, and I'm deeply dissatisfied with what the Takaichi administration is doing now," said another rally participant.
Other rally participants said that seeing revision of the Constitution could unleash unchecked military expansion, stripping away the very safeguards that have kept Japan at peace for eight decades.
"Article 9 of the Constitution is the key. If the nature of the Self-Defense Forces is elevated to a level beyond collective self-defense, which is explicitly written into the Constitution, it will allow the authority of the Self-Defense Forces to expand without limit. So no matter what, I want to prevent this from happening," said one more rally participant.
Japanese citizens rally against Takaichi's military expansion, constitutional revision
