The China challenge

From a military standpoint, while the regional rivalry is not insignificant, it is the territorial contestation that is more important at the moment

China is a revisionist state. Having aggregated immense power, its economic and military might is now translating into coercive influence. In the east, China dominates the South China Sea, it routinely reminds Taiwan that it sees the latter as a renegade province and it continues to lock horns with Japan over the disputed island territories. In the west, with the restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang under control, China now feels that the time is ripe to assert its territorial claims along the Himalayas, with India and Bhutan.
 

While the eastern maritime regions remain its primary areas