Blocs heat up arms race in Asia-Pacific

Expert warns that Washington's strategy is boosting concept of 'selective security'

Editor's note: China Daily presents a series of in-depth reports to analyze how exclusive blocs create divides, conflicts and setbacks in the world, and how the greater international community works to shore up unity, peace and development.

Washington and its allies have drawn fire and a backlash recently for their alarming, hasty pace of boosting military muscle and even a nuclear arms race in the Asia-Pacific region as they advance exclusive defense blocs such as AUKUS and QUAD.

A number of leaders, scholars and observers warned that the US-led security blocs－mostly built in recent years－are risking the region's hard-won peace and rapid economic growth built over the past decades when hyping the possibility of another Ukraine-style crisis in the Asia-Pacific region.