Australia scrambled an air force surveillance plane earlier this month to monitor an unannounced Chinese military exercise that took the emerging superpower's ships closer to Australian territory than ever before.
In what observers say is a significant strategic development, China carried out combat simulations at the beginning of the month between Christmas Island and Indonesia in an apparent flexing of its growing naval muscle.
"It shows how much the region is changing": Professor Hugh White. Photo: Sasha Woolley