Why China’s rapid military build-up is ‘hardly the whole story’

It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the third part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine China’s growing military might and how it’s narrowing the tech gap with the US. US defence chief Pete Hegseth told a conference in Washington this month that America would maintain a “clear-eyed appreciation” of China’s “rapid, formidable and holistic” military build-up. That build-up is being watched globally, with defence experts in recent years tracking the country’s military advances as the People’s Liberation Army – the biggest standing army in the world – modernises…