500 years ago, China destroyed its world-dominating navy because its political elite was afraid of free trade

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Vmenkov / Wikimedia, CC In the 1400s, China owned the greatest seagoing fleet in the world, up to 3,500 ships at its peak. (The U.S. Navy today has only 430). Some of them were five times the size of the ships being built in Europe at the time.
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