Yeah. That may be the case.
http://www.ageod-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=300&t=24424Stupid. As it artificially limits China, but that is not needed. China is weak enough to be pain to play.
I've solved that problem by myself adding those ships to Chinese Junks fleets (just 2 trade ships).
This way every Chinese fleet is a trade fleet which seems reasonable for them.
They do not upgrade and cost cheaply 10 "capital" currency to buy replacements.
In PON China is completely backyard country which was untrue. China was underpowered and out gunned by Anglo-French forces but they had factories, powder depots and tons of troops. In PON you lack everything, especially money, which was not a problem on that scale in reality.
Solution:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=300&t=52593
Meteoryt-like user. Strikes and disappears.