Senior military officials from the United States and China used a conference in Singapore to push competing visions of Asia’s future security: a US-led safety net of well-armed partnerships versus a region where China is the centre of a new international order. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and officials from allied countries argued—implicitly or explicitly—that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed that Asia should urgently embrace a network of US-led alliances to tame the growing might of China. On Sunday, the Chinese defence minister, Gen Li Shangfu, methodically laid out criticisms of the US and presented Beijing as a contrast in leadership,…