China’s Navy is now the largest in the world. A modernization program focused on naval and missile forces has shifted the balance of power in the Pacific in way the United States and its allies are just starting to understand. China still lags in projecting firepower on a global scale, but it can now challenge American military supremacy in the places that matter most to it, which are the waters around Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea, according to The New York Times.

The United States has operated in a large section of the Pacific Ocean since the naval battles of World War II. But that area is once again contested territory, with regular encounters between Chinese warships and U.S. forces.

China does not need a military that can defeat the United States outright in order to prevail in these waters. Instead, it merely needs one that can make an intervention in the region too costly for Washington to contemplate, writes The Times. Some analysts think that Beijing has already achieved that goal.