How are China’s Type 052D destroyers shifting the balance in the western Pacific?

When state television aired footage in July of a Type 052D destroyer launching a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile it signalled a significant expansion of the Chinese navy’s long-range strike power. The missile had previously been associated with China’s larger Type 055 destroyers. Showing it fired from a Type 052D – a class the People’s Liberation Army has built in far greater numbers – suggests Beijing may be able to spread the weapon well beyond its much smaller force of Type 055s. That...