Do they have any choice with all the anti-China hate speech/Yellow Peril in the USA, Australia? Do not build up defence seriously and regret will be enormous in the near future.
I keep stressing this. What they need to build up are more submarines (SSN 095 and SSBN 096). Those will decide the day.
All their neighbors (Vietnam, Singapore, India) are getting more lethal modern SSKs.
And then there's US unmatched Sub forces, along with Aus and SOK and Jap's SSKs.