Notwithstanding East Asia’s economic growth rates and deepening integration into the global economy, the region’s strategic realities reflect contending trajectories.

As China expands its national interests in the broader context of “new historic missions”, it seeks to regain a great power status and reassert its geopolitical role in the region. As a result of China’s accelerating military modernisation, regional powers are responding by revamping their force-modernisation priorities, alliances and overall strategic choices.

The economic, political and military rise of China, embedded in three decades of relentless Chinese economic growth, has propelled progressive modernisation of the Chinese military with major improvements in virtually every capability domain.

… Dr Michael Raska is a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This commentary first appeared in RSIS Commentaries.