China’s military power has been lagging behind its economic success story. This is now changing. As the latest US annual report illustrates, China is making impressive strides in its military capabilities, which includes a massive and unprecedented growth in its nuclear forces. The only surprising aspect is that it has taken so long. But growth in wealth invariably leads to growth in military power eventually, simply because the expanded national budget can now allocate a bigger slice of the pie to all government departments. Often, this is the driver of military budgets rather than worsening external insecurities. Sure, some countries...