China ‘disinvited’ from major US military exercise over South China Sea

The US has withdrawn an invitation to China to participate in what has been described as the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

A Pentagon spokesman said in a statement that “China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the RIMPAC exercise,” and it has “disinvited the PLA Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise.”

Held every two years and based in Hawaii, the RIMPAC exercise involves more than 20 countries from across the world, including Australia, India, Japan and the United Kingdom.

The decision to withdraw China’s invitation was made by Defense Secretary James Mattis in coordination with the White House, according to a US official, after Beijing’s recent deployment of missile systems and the first landing of a Chinese bomber on an island in the South China Sea.

The same defense official told CNN that the US has its own imagery showing China’s deployment of anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles and jammers on disputed islands.

Carl Schuster, Hawaii Pacific University professor and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN the decision to withdraw the invitation showed “the days of appeasement are over.”

“We are now willing to take strong action diplomatically … We’re telling the Chinese that there will be diplomatic and potentially economic consequences for further aggression in the South China Sea,” he said.

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Updated 11:58 PM EDT, Wed May 23, 2018

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Bombers landed on island

China said last week that it landed long-range bombers for the first time on an island in the South China Sea, the latest in a series of maneuvers putting Beijing at odds with its neighbors and Washington over China’s growing military presence around disputed islands.

The bombers were deployed to Woody Island, an artificial land mass built by the Chinese government in the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan as well as Beijing.

BEIJING, July 26, 2017 : File photo taken in July, 2016 shows Chinese H-6K bomber patrolling islands and reefs including Huangyan Island in the South China Sea. It has been a big year for China's military as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is to celebrate its 90th birthday. As Aug. 1, the birthday of the PLA, approaches, the country's army has shown how much its military capacity has grown and how committed it is to maintaining world peace. The PLA has come a long way since its birth during the armed uprising in the city of Nanchang on August 1, 1927, when it had only 20,000 soldiers. Ninety years later, the country boasts 2 million servicemen, according to a national defense white paper titled "China's Military Strategy," published in 2015. Besides the growth in numbers, the PLA has armed its soldiers with world-class equipment. As of June 2017, the Chinese military had participated in 24 UN peacekeeping missions, sending 31,000 personnel, 13 of whom lost their lives in duty. Since 2008, the Navy has dispatched 26 escort task force groups, including more than 70 ships for escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. More than 6,300 Chinese and foreign ships have been protected during these missions. (Xinhua/Liu Rui via Getty Images)

Related article China tests bombers on South China Sea island

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) announced it successfully organized the takeoff and landing of several bombers, including the nuclear-capable H-6K, on an unspecified island. The PLA claimed the mission was a part of China’s aim to achieve a broader regional reach, quicker mobilization, and greater strike capabilities.

“The islands in the South China Sea are China’s territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement Monday. “The relevant military activities are normal trainings and other parties shouldn’t over-interpret them.”

Standing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the US decision “unhelpful.”

“We find that a very unconstructive move … It’s unhelpful to mutual understanding between China and the US. We hope the US will change such a negative mindset,” he told reporters.

Pompeo said at the same briefing that the US has been consistent in raising its concerns about China’s behavior in the South China Sea.

US Defense Secretary Mattis is scheduled to travel to China and Japan at the end of June, defense officials have acknowledged.

The People's Republic of China Chinese Navy frigate Hengshui and the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale transit in formation during RIMPAC 2016.

China sent a message

Participating in the last RIMPAC in 2016 were 45 ships, 200 aircraft and more than 25,000 people from 26 nations, the defense official told CNN.

The Chinese military sent five vessels to take part in the 2016 exercises, including the missile destroyer Xi’an, the missile frigate Hengshui and the supply ship Gaoyouhu.

It was only the second time China had taken part in the exercises.

RIMPAC is a unequaled opportunity for countries across the Asia Pacific to work together and train on issues of common maritime interest, Schuster said.

Related article US challenged by China's navy in South China Sea

“It’s also an opportunity for bilateral interaction, you typically get to meet counterparts from countries you don’t work with regularly. It’s quite a gathering, and it’s professionally rewarding,” he said.

By excluding China from the event in 2018, the United States was sending a clear message that Beijing was stepping outside international norms, Schuster said.

He added the Obama administration had allowed China to participate in the 2016 RIMPAC exercises after a promise from Chinese President Xi Jinping that the artificial islands in the South China Sea would not be militarized.

“If we had disinvited China after he’d given his word, then it would have been a major diplomatic stab in the eye, saying we don’t believe him. We didn’t have evidence at the time he would continue the militarization,” he said.

CNN’s Laura Koran and Bethlehem Feleke contributed to this report