Pentagon bars China from joining naval exercise

praised and complained about China’s role before his planned June 12 summit with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, and as the White House has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Chinese imports to help stem the U.S. trade deficit.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis made the decision to withdraw China’s invitation to take part in the Rim of the Pacific, or Rimpac, naval exercises after consulting with the White House about Beijing’s military moves, according to a U.S. official.

China has participated in the last two Rimpacs as part of a U.S. effort to draw its military into a more cooperative relationship. The biannual exercise is organized by U.S. Pacific Command and involves naval forces from multiple Asian countries. It takes place in waters around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

This year’s exercise is scheduled from June 27 to Aug. 2 and includes 46 ships, more than 200 aircraft and 26,000 personnel from 26 countries. Half the participating ships are U.S. Navy vessels.

China was planning to bring four ships, including a hospital ship, and a salvage diving team.

Analysts said the decision to exclude China is another zigzag in the Trump administration’s relations with Beijing, which has veered from controversy to accommodation, sometimes day by day.

“This is a big deal” that signals “intensified competition in the relationship” between Washington and Beijing, Abraham Denmark, a former Pentagon official responsible for Asia in the Obama administration, tweeted Wednesday.

The Pentagon blamed China’s offshore military buildup for the dispute. U.S. officials say that China is developing a military capacity to threaten U.S. naval vessels that operate in the South China Sea and to choke off shipping through a vital waterway in the event of war.

“China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serve to raise tensions and destabilize the region,” Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said in the statement. “We have called on China to remove the military systems immediately and to reverse course on the militarization of disputed South China Sea features.”

The South China Sea has heavily traveled shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and potential oil, gas and other undersea mineral deposits. China claims the waters and its islands virtually in their entirety, though Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei also have overlapping claims.