Australia’s defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have “such an extraordinary military build-up”.
On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that “what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War”.
It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.
“It’s the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It’s happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up.”
I don’t think there’s much of a mystery to solve here. Basically every country or territory along China’s maritime borders is forming or deepening ties with the U.S. military, buying weapons systems, and even building new bases. A full-blown war between nuclear powers is pretty unthinkable but just a blockade would seriously harm China’s economy.
Of course, everyone talks about just wanting to protect shipping lanes and their territorial sovereignty and shit like that. Peace through strength. Maybe that ultimately turns out to be how it goes. But wars have broken out over some pretty dumb shit that escalated.