This Is Why America Needs to Kick China Out of RIMPAC

Shirley Kan

Security, Asia

China simply is not in alignment with US and allied security interests and does not play by the same international rules--so don't invite them to RIMPAC. 

Hawaii’s Rep. Mark Takai has objected to China’s participation at the 2016 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise based at Pearl Harbor. Takai also would amend the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to bar China if its invitation is not revoked by the Pentagon. The Obama Administration should rescind the conditional invitation for the PLA to join RIMPAC 2016.

While the Navy’s Third Fleet in San Diego technically invites foreign navies to RIMPAC, the review of whether to include China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy reflects the views of PACOM, the Navy, the Pentagon, and the White House. PLA presence at the premier maritime warfare exercise remains sensitive, because of concerns about protecting US and allied technology, tactics, techniques, and procedures; preventing disclosure of defense articles and services; complying with US laws; and including China but excluding Taiwan despite US assistance to Taiwan against China’s threats.

As Takai pointed out, China’s behavior in the South China Sea is the “polar opposite of US objectives” and entertaining the PLA at RIMPAC would reward China for bad behavior. China has faced little cost for bad behavior that is wide-ranging, including the PLA’s cyber-enabled theft of US economic secrets and declaration of an “East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)” in 2013 to attempt to nationalize international airspace over that sea. Concerns are rising about China’s future claim of a similarly restrictive and threatening “South China Sea ADIZ.” RIMPAC would legitimize and help the PLA in exercises aimed to help and reassure allies and partners, some facing China’s menace.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September of last year, PACOM head Adm. Harry Harris warned about the dangers of China’s behavior. Two days before Harris’ testimony, two PLA aircraft intercepted, in an unsafe manner, a US RC-135 over the Yellow Sea. This incident occurred after a PLA fighter’s dangerous intercept of a US P-8 aircraft in August 2014.

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testified at a Mar. 22 hearing of House Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department continues to review the offer to the PLA to participate in RIMPAC this summer. Nonetheless, Carter argued that the United States does not want to exclude anyone from the regional “security architecture.”