Price of power

THE People's Liberation Army (PLA), as China calls its combined army, navy and air force, is probably best known for its size (about 3m-strong, the world's largest armed force) and, as it proved in Beijing in 1989, its readiness to shoot at its own people. Over the past two years, by occupying reefs in the South China Sea and attempting to intimidate Taiwan, which is claimed by China, the PLA has come to look a menace to its neighbours too. How much of a regional player the PLA, and thus China, will be in the future depends on how quickly it can buy or build the modern ships and warplanes it still sorely lacks. This year, events are moving the PLA's way.