The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) expansion in the western Pacific is aimed at ousting the United States armed forces from the region in the long term so that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can easily assert control and influence over neighbouring regions. The Sydney-based think tank, the Lowy Institute, has released a paper examining the build-up of PLA maritime and aerospace capabilities, it also found that Australia could no longer rely on sheer proximity from Asia as a defence, and Australian authorities needed to prepare contingencies in case of conflict. “China appears to be building a force specifically intended to be able to eject the U.S. military from the western Pacific by force, to stare it down in a crisis, or to encourage the United States to step away from its current commitments due to overstretching, defeatism, or frustration with allies,” author Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the …