Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of a parade commemorating the eightieth anniversary of victory in World War II in Beijing on August 20, 2025. (Pedro Pardo via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
US Commerce Secretary Howard William Lutnick and Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa shake hands on on September 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) sails in formation during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise on July 28, 2022. (DVIDS)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A microchip and Taiwanese flag displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo on April 10, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images)
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain transit the South China Sea on November 4, 2021. (US Navy photo by Tyler R. Fraser)
Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Li Zhanshu at the Eastern Economic Forum in Primorye, Russia, on September 7, 2022, on the heels of the Vostok 2022 joint military exercises between Russia and China. (TASS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders' summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 16, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Bobylov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Honor guards take part in a welcome ceremony for Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Taiwan, on February 16, 2023. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)
An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 94th Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, takes off for a Red Flag 23-1 mission at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada on January 24, 2023. (US Air Force Photo by William R. Lewis)