Politics
Chart: The Most Influential Countries in Asia
Chart: The Most Influential Countries in Asia
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword.
However, what they often fail to mention is that the pen is even mightier when it comes with massive amounts of leverage, influence, and power backing it up on every stroke.
How to Win Friends and Influence Countries
Every country is interested in gaining influence, and earlier this week we showed you an interactive infographic from the Lowy Institute that compared the strength of Asian powers to the United States.
Today’s chart uses the same data set, and it not only highlights the most influential countries in the Asian arena, but it also plots resources (i.e. the potential for power) of countries against their actual level of influence. The Lowy Institute calls this the “Power Gap” and it is intended to show whether a country is overperforming or underperforming in terms of fulfilling its expected level of influence on the region.
Here are descriptions of the two measures which are used for the Power Gap:
Resources: A score based on economic resources, military capability, resilience, and future trends, this measurement provides an assessment of a country’s material capabilities and robustness, which are requisite factors in the exercise of power.
Influence: A score based on diplomatic influence, economic relationships, defense networks, and cultural influence, this measurement is used to assess a country’s level of influence on other countries in the Asian arena.
Next, we’ll look at the actual numbers to see what we can learn.
Measuring Influence
Here’s how countries perform – as a reminder, this is based on the Asia Power Index, which is made up of countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States.
Rank | Country | Overall Power | Expected Power | Power Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | United States | 85.0 | 84.8 | 0.2 |
#2 | China | 75.5 | 78.6 | -3.0 |
#3 | Japan | 42.1 | 31.1 | 11.0 |
#4 | India | 41.5 | 43.8 | -2.3 |
#5 | Russia | 33.3 | 39.7 | -6.4 |
#6 | Australia | 32.5 | 25.4 | 7.2 |
#7 | South Korea | 30.7 | 25.3 | 5.4 |
#8 | Singapore | 27.9 | 20.4 | 7.5 |
#9 | Malaysia | 20.6 | 16.7 | 3.9 |
#10 | Indonesia | 20.0 | 20.9 | -1.0 |
#11 | Thailand | 19.2 | 16.3 | 2.9 |
#12 | New Zealand | 18.9 | 17.1 | 1.8 |
#13 | Vietnam | 16.5 | 16.2 | 0.3 |
#14 | Pakistan | 15.1 | 18.2 | -3.1 |
#15 | Taiwan | 14.9 | 18.8 | -3.9 |
#16 | Philippines | 12.4 | 11.0 | 1.4 |
#17 | North Korea | 11.4 | 18.3 | -6.9 |
#18 | Bangladesh | 8.7 | 10.9 | -2.2 |
#19 | Brunei | 8.2 | 9.4 | -1.2 |
#20 | Myanmar | 7.6 | 9.4 | -1.8 |
#21 | Sri Lanka | 7.6 | 10.8 | -3.2 |
#22 | Cambodia | 6.1 | 6.7 | -0.6 |
#23 | Mongolia | 5.0 | 7.3 | -2.3 |
#24 | Laos | 4.8 | 6.1 | -1.3 |
#25 | Nepal | 3.1 | 5.6 | -2.5 |
In terms of absolute power, the U.S. and China top the list. Interestingly, Russia is only 5th place overall.
The “Power Gap” partially seems to explain this, as Russia appears to have the biggest gap between its expected power and its actual power. The country has the second worst power gap at -6.4.
Looking at the opposite end of the spectrum, it appears Japan, Singapore, and Australia are all punching above their weight in terms of influence. Meanwhile, Malaysia has the 5th best power gap, which may be unexpected for many.
War
Visualized: Top 15 Global Tank Fleets
Heavily armed and armored, the modern tank is a versatile and mobile weapons platform, and a critical piece of contemporary warfare.Â
The Top 15 Global Tank Fleets
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Heavily armed and armored, the modern tank is a versatile and mobile weapons platform, and a critical piece of contemporary warfare.
This visualization shows the top 15 global tank fleets, using data from the 2024 Military Balance report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Let’s take an in-depth look at the top three fleets:
1. United States
As the world’s pre-eminent military power, it’s perhaps no surprise that the United States also has the largest tank fleet, by a wide margin.
In total, they have just over 45,000 armored fighting vehicles in operation, along with 2,640 main battle tanks (MBTs), and 12,800 vehicles in storage, of which 2,000 are main battle tanks.
Category | Vehicles | Global rank |
---|---|---|
Main battle tanks | 2,640 | 4 |
Armored reconnaissance | 1,745 | 1 |
Infantry fighting vehicles | 3,262 | 3 |
Armored personnel carriers | 10,644 | 1 |
Amphibious assault vehicles | 1,401 | 1 |
Armored utility vehicles | 28,445 | 1 |
Storage | 12,800 | 1 |
Total | 60,937 | 1 |
The U.S. is internalizing the lessons from the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, where Western-supplied anti-tank weapons and massed Ukrainian artillery have been cutting Russian tanks to pieces. As a result, the U.S. recently canceled an upgrade of the M1 Abrams in favor of a more ambitious upgrade.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is nervously eyeing a more confident China and a potential clash over Taiwan, where air and naval forces will be critical. However, a recent war game showed that Taiwanese mechanized ground forces, kitted out with American-made tanks and armored fighting vehicles, were critical in keeping the island autonomous.
2. Russia
According to Oryx, a Dutch open-source intelligence defense website, at time of writing, Russia has lost almost 2,800 main battle tanks since invading Ukraine. Considering that in the 2022 edition of the Military Balance, Russia was estimated to have 2,927 MBTs in operation, those are some hefty losses.
Russia has been able to maintain about 2,000 MBTs in the field, in part, by increasing domestic production. Many defense plants have been taken over by state-owned Rostec and now operate around the clock. Russia is also now spending a full third of their budget on defense, equivalent to about 7.5% of GDP.
At the same time, they’ve also been drawing down their Soviet-era stockpiles, which are modernized before being sent to the front. Just how long they can keep this up is an open question; their stockpiles are large, but not limitless. Here is what their storage levels look like:
Category | 2023 | 2024 | YOY change |
---|---|---|---|
Main battle tanks | 5,000 | 4,000 | -20.0% |
Armored reconnaissance | 1,000 | 100 | -90.0% |
Infantry fighting vehicles | 4,000 | 2,800 | -30.0% |
Armored personnel carriers | 6,000 | 2,300 | -61.7% |
Total | 16,000 | 9,200 | -42.5% |
3. China
China holds the third overall spot and top place globally for the number of main battle tanks in operation. Untypically, the People’s Liberation Army has no armored vehicles in storage, which perhaps isn’t surprising when you consider that China has been rapidly modernizing its military and that stockpiles usually contain older models.
China also has one of the world’s largest fleets of armored fighting vehicles, second only to the United States. Breaking down that headline number, we can also see that they have the largest number of light tanks, wheeled guns, and infantry fighting vehicles.Â
Category | Vehicles | Global rank |
---|---|---|
Main battle tanks | 4,700 | 1 |
Light tanks | 1,330 | 1 |
Wheeled guns | 1,250 | 1 |
Infantry fighting vehicles | 8,200 | 1 |
Armored personnel carriers | 3,604 | 5 |
Airborne combat vehicles | 180 | 2 |
Amphibious assault vehicles | 990 | 2 |
Total | 20,254 | 3 |
This is equipment that would be integral if China were to make an attempt to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, where lightly armored mechanized units need to move with speed to occupy the island before Western allies can enter the fray. It’s worth noting that China also has one of the world’s largest fleets of amphibious assault vehicles.
End of the Tank?
Many commentators at the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were quick to predict the end of the tank, however, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the tank’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
With the U.S. and China both developing remote and autonomous armored vehicles, tanks could be quite different in the future, but there is nothing else that matches them for firepower, mobility, and survivability on the modern battlefield today.
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