Rapidly expanding Chinese operator Tianjin Airlines is preparing to branch out further with long-haul passenger operations and a standalone freight subsidiary to bolster a strategy of covering secondary and tertiary cities in China’s vast western and northwestern districts, which airline President Xin Di says is proving successful. “Experience over the past two years confirms that the western strategy is working,” says Xin.

For a country with one of the world's most immediately pressing defense problems, South Korea spends a lot of money on weapons with wider applications. Its ambitions for power-projection capability reaching far beyond the Korean peninsula are becoming increasingly obvious. Indeed, the defense ministry has, perhaps unintentionally, brought the issue into focus with a rare public discussion of its indigenous land-attack missiles, especially a cruise missile program that has been flying under the radar of Western public attention.

Here is a regional airline with Chinese characteristics—one that is growing so fast that it is rapidly picking up mainline characteristics. In just five years, the company has evolved from operating Dornier 328s to Embraer ERJ 145s, then Embraer 190s and now Airbus A320s. By mid-decade it plans to take the remarkably non-regional step of introducing widebodies for intercontinental services. A freight subsidiary is also in the works.