https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49zSy7-Qepc

The US has this article about how in the case of conflict with China, they may issue letters of marque:

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/april/us-privateering-legal

"Issuing letters of marque presents international legal risks—some real, others imagined—but these are manageable. Further, since a conflict with China might, to paraphrase Dean Acheson, threaten the power, position, and even the existence of the United States, the demands of the conflict would limit the salience of law"

Would you be a privateer (legal pirate) for fun and profit?

"I was told we'd cruise the seas for (Chinese) gold, we'd fire no guns, shed no tears! Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax peir, the last of Barrets privateers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3oCJfnHO8