Senators Want China Disinvited From Naval Exercises

Senators Want China Disinvited From Naval Exercises

"Our government should be considering policy options that impose costs on China’s disruptive behavior, not reward it.” -- Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jack Reed 

By GORDON LUBOLD

Photos taken on Jan. 3, 2010 (L) and April 30, 2015 (R) by satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe and released to AFP on May 9, 2015 show expansion of disputed islands in the South China Sea. 

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) want Beijing disinvited from a big naval exercise next year as a penalty for building artificial islands in the South China Sea and for “provocative actions” elsewhere.
Messrs. McCain and Reed, respectively the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the panel’s top Democrat, wrote Defense Secretary Ash Carter late Thursday, asking the Pentagon chief to reconsider inviting China to the 2016 “Rim of the Pacific” — or RIMPAC — naval exercises in Hawaii.
“We think this decision is misguided,” the two wrote in a letter, a copy of which was provided toThe Wall Street Journal. 

“Given the [People’s Republic of China’s provocative actions in the East and South China Seas, our government should be considering policy options that impose costs on China’s disruptive behavior, not reward it.”
China’s muscle-flexing in the region has raised tensions between Washington and Beijing and among allies in the Asia Pacific, and come days after Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Beijing.
In recent months, Beijing has expanded a chain of artificial islands fourfold, adding some 1,500 acres of dredged material to form a total of 2,000 acres of landmass across seven different islands. 

Beijing has insisted that it has the right to build the islands and claims the area as its own.
The Wall Street Journal reported May 12 that the Pentagon was considering using U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels to contest Beijing’s territorial claims to the islands, which would be a dramatic change in posture. 

Until now, the U.S. military has not flown aircraft or sailed ships to within a 12-nautical mile zone around the artificial islands. 

The proposals to do so remain under consideration.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military allowed CNN to broadcast pictures of the islands from a Navy plane, but the aircraft did not fly within the 12-mile zone, defense officials aid. 

On that flight, China warned the U.S. pilots, “You are approaching our military alert zone.”
In their letter, Sens. McCain and Reed said Beijing is attempting to “establish operational control” in both the East and South China seas, “using a variety of methods of coercion.” 

China first participated in the RIMPAC naval exercise, held every other year, in 2014.
There have been longtime fears in and outside of the U.S. military that the U.S. shares too much information with China — showing the Chinese military sensitive equipment aboard an aircraft carrier, for example — but gets little in return.
“While a sustained and substantive military-to-military relationship with China is in our interests, our desire for continued engagement with the PRC cannot be the main driver of the relationship,” the two senators wrote.
There was no immediate response to the letter from the Pentagon.