U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday said the U.S. is stepping up its efforts to resist China's plans to "dominate and control" Southeast and East Asia. "America is proud to be back in the Indo-Pacific,

China on Saturday criticised as a "double standard" attempts to link the defence of Ukraine with the need to protect Taiwan from a Chinese invasion - a thinly veiled reference to a speech by French Emmanuel Macron in Singapore on Friday night.

Beijing has high hopes for its C919 single-aisle jet after years of delay, but the plane depends on engines, avionics and other gear from Western companies.

China’s Tianwen-2 mission has launched to explore an asteroid that may be a piece of the moon, as well as an active asteroid that acts like a comet.

Without these essential automotive components, it would only be a matter of time before U.S. vehicle factories are disrupted, they said.

With increasing tension between the world’s two largest economies – over rare earth minerals, over Chinese students at U.S. universities – a look at some data points.

Australia has in recent times pledged to boost its missile defence capability amid China's nuclear weapons buildup and its blue-water naval expansion, as the country targets to increase its defence spending from roughly 2% of GDP currently to 2.4% by the early 2030s.

The Tianwen-2 mission by China targets asteroid 2016 HO3 to gather samples, with plans for future missions to Mars and Jupiter, enhancing space exploration efforts.