{"id":17558,"date":"2019-08-19T15:53:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/19\/china-grown-strong-enough-for-a-surprise-move-in-the-indo-pacific-think-tank-warns\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:55:35","slug":"china-grown-strong-enough-for-a-surprise-move-in-the-indo-pacific-think-tank-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/08\/19\/china-grown-strong-enough-for-a-surprise-move-in-the-indo-pacific-think-tank-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"China now strong enough for a surprise move in the Indo-Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013 China is gaining an increasingly favorable military position in the Indo-Pacific, leaving the United States no longer able to enjoy military primacy in the region, a new report by an Australian think tank has warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sydney-based United States Studies Centre says the region is now vulnerable to China making a quick move to secure a military or strategic advantage, with the cost of an American counter-move potentially too high to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its report, analysts also lament the \u201ccombined effect of ongoing wars in the Middle East, budget austerity, underinvestment in advanced military capabilities and the scale of America\u2019s liberal order-building agenda has left the US armed forces ill-prepared for great power competition in the Indo-Pacific.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report<\/a>, titled, \u201cAverting crisis: American Strategy, Military Spending and Collective Defence in the Indo-Pacific,\u201d adds that over the next decade, the U.S. defense budget \u201cis unlikely to meet the needs of the National Defense Strategy owing to a combination of political, fiscal and internal pressures.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the regional balance of power has tilted in China\u2019s favor, which the report says is also a product of the way Beijing has modernized and postured its armed forces. Central to this is the massive investment in conventionally-armed ballistic and cruise missiles, which analysts consider the centerpiece of China\u2019s \u201ccounter-intervention\u201d efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u201cgrowing arsenal of accurate long-range missiles,\u201d some of which are able to reach the critical American air and naval bases located at the U.S. territory of Guam in the northern Marianas from mainland China, \u201cposes a major threat to almost all American, allied and partner bases, airstrips, ports and military installations in the Western Pacific.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t