U.S. Rep. Mark Takai wants to bar China from participating in this summer’s Rim of the Pacific war games, saying at a House Armed Services Committee meeting Tuesday that China’s behavior in the South China Sea is “the polar opposite of U.S. objectives in the region.”
Takai, a Hawaii Democrat, told Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he would follow through with an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting China’s participation if the Pentagon does not revoke the rising Asia power’s RIMPAC invitation.
Takai questioned whether China is preparing to conduct land reclamation at Scarborough Shoal, 120 miles from Subic Bay in the Philippines — a step that would greatly increase tensions in the already contested South China Sea.
“Congressman, we’re concerned about that prospect,” Carter said, adding that China’s leaders are “self-isolating” the nation in the region.
“My question then is, why then should we reward China (for its) aggressive behavior by including them in an event meant for allies and partners?” Takai asked.
Carter told Takai earlier, “We’re constantly evaluating our relationship with China and China’s behavior — including in the South China Sea, where I emphasize we have very serious concerns about their aggressive militarization.”
China has an invitation to participate in this summer’s RIMPAC exercise in Hawaii, “and we will continue to review that,” Carter said.
“But you might say, what’s the logic for having them there in the first place?” Carter added. “Our strategy in the Asia-Pacific is not to exclude anyone, but to keep the security architecture going there in which everyone participates.”
The United States is not excluding China from that security architecture “in which America plays the pivotal role — and we
intend to keep playing that pivotal role,” Carter said.
However, the United States disinvited Thailand from RIMPAC two years ago following a coup there.
The Navy’s 3rd Fleet in San Diego, the planners for RIMPAC, said recently that all 21 foreign nations that participated with the United States in RIMPAC 2014 have been formally invited to return this year to the exercise, which is held every other year.
Carter and Dunford testified Tuesday on the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization budget request.
News agency Reuters reported that the U.S. military has observed Chinese activity around Scarborough Shoal in the Spratly archipelago west of Subic Bay in the Philippines.
Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., head of U.S. Pacific Command headquartered at Camp Smith on Oahu, last month accused China of trying to create hegemony in East Asia and destabilization of the South China Sea — where reefs and islands are claimed by multiple countries — with China’s deployment of missile systems to the Paracel Islands and construction of three 10,000-foot runways in the Spratlys.
China has been rapidly building up reefs and islands with land reclamation efforts to support more infrastructure.
China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and the Philippines have competing claims in the South China Sea. The United States worries China will restrict commercial and military passage in international waters.
“Our policy is that no one ought to be militarizing these features,” Carter said.
Takai said that if China builds a runway on Scarborough Shoal, Harris, the Pacific Command commander, has assessed that Beijing would have total access across the South China Sea.
Carter said such a step would prompt an even stronger U.S. military response.
“It’s the kind of behavior that we will react to in our own military posture and deployments, and all regional partners will react to, so it will be self-defeating and self-isolating for China,” Carter said. “So I hope they don’t do that. But we’re prepared for that eventuality should it occur.”
