China’s Military Power 2021 {Military Capability}.

MILITARY CAPABILITY: The navies of Australia, India, Japan and the United States held their biggest naval drills this month, sending warships, submarines and aircraft to the Indian Ocean, in a move analysts said signalled the four countries’ seriousness in countering China’s military and political influence in the Indo-Pacific region. There was little comment from officials in Beijing, but Chinese state media condemned the Malabar naval exercises, with the Global Times newspaper calling the drills a risk to regional stability. The tabloid alleged the exercises were part of an effort aimed at containing China’s rise and labelled the four-country alliance “the Asian version of NATO” – a term first used by China’s top diplomat to describe the informal grouping known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or simply, the Quad. The group first came together in 2007, touting the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, only to disband within months amid protests from China. Its revival a decade later came amid w