Ukraine war, 1 year on: China’s neighbours intensify regional arms race
- After rising steadily for decades, defence spending in Asia is surging, fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, researchers say
- Chinese paper argues the US is driving the trend by using the Ukrainian crisis to strengthen its Indo-Pacific alliances against China
China’s neighbours have stepped up their military expansion and preparations since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to researchers from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of International Relations.
In a paper published by Renmin University’s Pacific journal, the researchers said the war in Europe had already significantly altered the region’s security environment.
“The crisis in Ukraine has further exacerbated tensions in China’s surroundings, creating a new round of security dilemmas and causing Japan, South Korea and India to lean further towards the United States,” they said.
Co-authors Wang Jian and Zhang Qun said a driver for the trend was the strengthening by the US of its alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China. They argued that the US had used the Ukraine crisis to promote Nato’s involvement in the region by projecting the risks of the war’s impacts “spilling over” to Asia.
However, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s yearbooks show an “uninterrupted upwards trend dating back to at least 1989” in the region’s military spending.
