India's successful test-firing of a long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile represents the most recent escalation of an arms race in Asia, where the burgeoning military power of China has shaken the region and triggered an aggressive response from the Obama administration, The New York Times reported. "All of this, from the Chinese perspective, looks like a movement from balancing China to containing China," said Graeme P. Herd, a security expert at the Geneva Center for Security Policy. "[The India test-launch] increases the perception of an arms race, and the reality of an arms race, in East Asia, particularly between China and India." The launch of India's missile, which is capable of reaching the major Chinese cities of Bejing and Shanghai, thrusted the nation into an elite club of world powers with long-range nuclear capability.
