"Peace Mission 2005", the first joint military exercise launched yesterday by China and Russia, is not the innocent peacekeeping drill its name suggests. It represents a significant deepening of the military relationship between a former superpower and an emerging one, and therefore will be closely watched by the only current superpower, the US.

This is no mere token show of co-operation. Over the next week nearly 10,000 soldiers, paratroopers, sailors and airforce personnel, most of them from China, will take part in the exercise in and around the Chinese coastal province of Shandong and the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok.