The alliance has been working for several years to improve its ability to reinforce and resupply across Europe, not only inland via roads, rivers, and railways but around the continent through ports that haven't seen much action since the Cold War.
NATO started going to more European ports around 2015 in order "to reestablish capabilities" and "to demonstrate that we could come [into Europe] at a variety of different places," retired Army Gen. Ben Hodges, who led the US Army in Europe between 2014 and 2017, told Business Insider in 2018.
"So as China continues to invest in things like ports and rail in Europe, that can complicate NATO mobility," Kendall-Taylor said Monday.
This investment has mainly come through the Belt and Road initiative, through which Beijing has provided trillions in loans and other assistance for development projects around the world. Much of the money that has flowed to Europe has gone to southern European countries.
As of early 2018, Chinese state firms controlled about one-tenth of all European port capacity, following acquisitions in Spain, Italy, and Greece, where the state-owned COSCO Holdings Company acquired a 67% stake in the port of Piraeus, Europe's largest passenger port.
"The ports issue is very present when you're talking about a realistic warfighting scenario," Gil Barndollar, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities, said on a conference call Tuesday.