CHINA SHAPES INDO-PACIFIC SECURITY

China’s expanding power and U.S.-partner responses remain the central geopolitical story in the Asia-Pacific, with the Indo-Pacific now a focal point of strategic tension. Regional security concerns increasingly overlap with trade, investment screening, export controls, and supply-chain policy rather than standing apart from them. Middle powers such as South Korea, Japan, and the EU are deepening regulatory and defense ties as they try to hedge against instability in the Taiwan Strait, North Korea, and the South China Sea. The most important development is the growing fusion of economic security and military strategy across the region, which is reshaping alliances and trade relationships at the same time.