China’s massive military spending is creating a ripple effect across the Asia-Pacific region

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the fastest-growing markets for arms dealers, with economic growth, territorial disputes and long-sought military modernisation propelling a 52 per cent increase in defence spending over the last decade to US$392 billion in 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.The region accounts for more than one-fifth of the global defence budget and is expected to grow. That was underscored last week by news of Taiwan’s bid to strike a US$2…