For those unaware, China is conducting a massive military parade on Wednesday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The event - which is accompanied by a three-day public holiday - is important for Xi Jinping, who is keen to project China’s strength to the world, especially in the wake of the country’s economic deceleration and highly publicized stock market meltdown.
Of course the parade also comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.
China’s land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea - where the PLA has constructed nearly 3,000 acres of new sovereign territory atop reefs - has regional US allies on edge. The dispute came to a head earlier this year when China effectively threatened to shoot down a US spy plane carrying a CNN crew over the Spratlys.
It’s against this backdrop that we recently brought you infographics [5] demonstrating China’s South China Sea naval superiority on the way to asking who would win a maritime conflict. Below, courtesy of CNN [6], is a simple infographic which puts the militaries of the US and China side by side on the way to making a comparison that may well become increasingly relevant in the new bipolarity.
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