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)
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a budget committee meeting during an extraordinary session at the Lower House of the Diet on August 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (Tomohiro Ohsumi via Getty Images)
A man walks past Taiwanese flags on Democracy Boulevard at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on October 15, 2024. (I-Hwa Cheng via Getty Images)
A prison van carrying Jimmy Lai arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts for the closing arguments in his national security trial in Hong Kong on August 18, 2025. (Man Hei Leung via Getty Images)
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)
A Chinese national flag is seen in the foreground with container ships, cranes, and stacked shipping containers at the Yantian International Container Terminal under cloudy skies in Shenzhen, China. (Cheng Xin viaGetty Images)
Workers arrange national flags of Japan and India ahead of a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Hyderabad House on March 19, 2022, in New Delhi, India. (Sonu Mehta via Getty Images)
An F/A-18E Super Hornet takes off from the flight deck the USS George Washington while underway in the Timor Sea on July 15, 2025, during Talisman Sabre, the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States. (US Navy photo)
Qinglong humanoid robots sort goods at a logistics sorting line during the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center on July 26, 2025. (Tian Yuhao via Getty Images)