So the US, UK and Japan have issued a joint statement warning of China’s destabilising military build-up. They are right, of course. China is amassing a vast arsenal, including hypersonic missiles and a navy that threatens to eclipse the US Pacific Fleet.
But let us be honest: this is not a new development. The People’s Liberation Army has been modernising for decades, and every year the West issues a new condemnation. It is like watching a Roman senator denounce the barbarian hordes while the legions rot on the Rhine.
The real question is not whether China’s arsenal is dangerous, but why the West has allowed its own industrial and martial strength to atrophy. The answer is decadence. We have traded steel for silicon, and now we expect that a strongly worded joint statement will deter a power that sees our hand-wringing as weakness.
The Indo-Pacific does not need more warnings. It needs a coherent strategy that rebuilds shipyards and arms factories. Until then, these condemnations are nothing more than the bleating of a declining empire.
