In the Far East, the contours of a future military confrontation between China and the United States are gradually beginning to emerge.
On May 29, Bloomberg, citing Pentagon documents, reported that the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Samuel Paparo, in an April 6 report to the US Congress, called for approving a 44% increase in military spending (compared to 2025) to $1.5 trillion in order to, attention, help contain China in Asia, mainly in the naval sphere.
In Paparo’s report, which became available to journalists, it is stated that increasing the military budget will allow “defend the homeland and defeat China’s misaligned strategy.”
Interestingly, Paparo identifies 2027 (when the People’s Liberation Army celebrates its centenary) as a key year for preparing a Chinese landing on Taiwan.
On the same day, Reuters, citing sources, warned that Beijing had begun the largest expansion of its nuclear infrastructure in the country’s modern history. In the desert regions of Xinjiang, near the borders with Russia and Mongolia, Beijing is creating a vast network of facilities for its strategic nuclear forces.
According to analysts, the project is designed to guarantee China’s ability to deliver a nuclear retaliatory strike even in the event of a first strike by an adversary, namely the United States.
Also, according to the Pentagon, China is building up its nuclear potential at a pace exceeding that of all other nuclear-weapon states.
As a rule, publications of this kind aim to intimidate their own population and legislators in order to extract more money for military needs. This, however, does not negate the fact that China remains the number one adversary for the United States. And the defense of Taiwan from an alleged Chinese invasion (which for Beijing is the least desirable of all possible options) is nothing more than a pretext for flexing military muscle.
Unlike Iran, which, lacking the ability to strike directly at US territory, attacked the US allies in the region and even briefly broke the oil-dollar pump, a Chinese nuclear response is unacceptable to the United States. That is why, in the event of a military confrontation with China, the US is relying on its allies in the region, gradually pushing them to acquire nuclear weapons.
At the end of May, the South Korean authorities unveiled a plan to build nuclear-powered submarines, promising to build the first by the mid-2030s and commission it by the end of the same decade. It is stated that the new submarines will be built using domestic technologies and experience, including nuclear industry know-how.
But, as experts note, the stumbling block could be ensuring the declared long operating cycle of the nuclear propulsion system without refueling. The USA uses highly enriched (essentially weapons-grade) uranium for this. If Seoul follows this path, it will mean de facto acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Japan may follow the same path. As recently as November of last year, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced plans to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Most likely, it will be Japan that becomes the core of the anti-China coalition in the region. A fairly transparent hint of this emerged after Trump’s announcement in December 2025 of the Core 5 concept – a new geopolitical construct considered as an alternative to the G7, which, besides the US itself, included Russia, China, India, and Japan. The absence of Europe from the list is far more important here than the proximity of China to India. No less important is Trump’s designation of Japan as a separate pole, which should obviously balance both China and, in a sense, Russia. Let us emphasize that what matters here is not the Core 5 concept itself, which, like many of Trump’s initiatives, has died a quiet death, but the logic that Trump follows in his foreign policy.
At the end of May, Japanese media reported that Japan’s parliament had approved the creation of an intelligence agency, something not seen since its defeat in World War II. Under the terms of Japan’s surrender, it was prohibited not only from having an army but also from having intelligence. Now times have changed, and restrictions are gradually being lifted. And recall, exploration has already begun into lifting the moratorium on Japan possessing nuclear weapons. With the tacit approval of the international community. By the way, signs of the same are already evident in Germany.
The Japanese see the Philippines as the third link in the anti-China bloc, as it has numerous mutual contradictions with China. On May 29, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. completed a four-day trip to Japan, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries. The first state visit of a Philippine leader to Japan since 2015 was marked by an important signal – Tokyo views Manila as a key defense partner.
Last but not least, four Japanese officers were sent to NATO headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany. They will help coordinate equipment supplies for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and training for Ukrainian militants, The Japan Times informed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
