Amid repeated air incursions close to Taiwan, and reports that China has tested hypersonic weapons, the world is paying closer attention to the modernisation of China’s armed forces and its pursuit of ever more sophisticated weaponry.Once hailed by the Communist Party as having defeated past adversaries with only “millet plus rifles”, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has now grown into the world’s largest fighting force, with more than two million active personnel.Under President Xi Jinping

President Joe Biden told Southeast Asian nations on Wednesday the United States (US) would stand with them in defending the freedom of the seas and democracy and called China's actions towards Taiwan "coercive" and a threat to peace and stability.Speaking at a virtual East Asia Summit attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Biden said Washington would start talks with partners in the Indo-Pacific about developing a regional economic framework, something critics say his regional

Southeast Asian leaders kicked off an ASEAN summit on Tuesday but Myanmar refused to send a representative after being angered by the bloc's decision to exclude the country's junta chief.The virtual gathering marked the start of three days of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with United States (US) President Joe Biden as well as Chinese and Russian leaders set to attend.Myanmar topped the agenda of Tuesday's talks between regional leaders,

This year marks the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China relations, a significant year indeed. I knew very little about ASEAN until 2003, when I got involved in the Track II processes in East Asia which then resulted in my academic focus on ASEAN-centred regional cooperation. Regarding each other as a strategic opportunity is a key to the extraordinary progress of the 30 years’ ASEAN-China relations.

Britain's new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier has paid a port call to Japan, in a mission that adds to pressure from Tokyo, the United States (US) and allies on China over its increasingly assertive regional maritime presence.The Queen Elizabeth is the flagship of the United Kingdom's (UK) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) deployment, which has been making stops around Japan and carrying out exercises along with vessels from allied nations in recent weeks."This port call to Japan

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its partner countries in the Asia-Pacific are increasingly concerned about the challenges that an assertive China could pose to global security. Based on the report ‘NATO 2030: United for a New Era’ dated November 2020, these challenges are multi-domain. A political strategy is there but so are the hurdles.

Vice President Kamala Harris launched a new broadside against China as she ended her Southeast Asian tour in Hanoi Thursday, warning the United States (US) would continue to push back against Beijing's claims in disputed Asian waters.The comments came on the final day of a regional trip in which Washington has sought to reset relations in Asia after the turbulent Donald Trump years and stress its commitment to Southeast Asian allies.During the trip, Harris had already accused Beijing twi

Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday the United States (US) would find new ways to "raise the pressure on Beijing", accusing China of bullying in hotly disputed Asian waters for the second time in two days.Harris made the comments as she began a visit to Vietnam to stress US commitment to Asia, a trip that critics have slammed as tone-deaf given the parallels with the superpower's evacuations from Saigon and Kabul.During a meeting with Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc,

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that Beijing's expansive claims in the South China Sea have "no basis in international law", taking aim at China's growing assertiveness in the hotly contested waters.Austin's broadside came at the start of his first trip to Southeast Asia as United States (US) defence secretary, as he seeks to rally allies in the region as a bulwark to China.President Joe Biden's administration wants to reset relations with Asian countrie

Malaysia scrambled jets to intercept 16 Chinese military aircraft off the country's coast in the South China Sea, a rare incident that the foreign minister angrily denounced Tuesday as an "intrusion".It took place Monday off the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo over the fiercely contested waters, where China and Malaysia have overlapping territorial claims.The Chinese air force transport planes approached Malaysian airspace in "tactical formation" and flew to wi