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)
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 15, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The upgraded U.S.-made F-16 V fighters are displayed during a ceremony at the Chiayi Air Force in southern Taiwan on November 18, 2021. (Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)
A Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 Raptor approaches a Wisconsin Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker to receive aerial refueling over the Pacific Ocean. (John Linzmeier/US Air National Guard)
Army veteran Stephen Hedger is hugged by his son Lincoln as he visits the gravesite of U.S. Army Major Paul Douglas Carron at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, November 11, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)