China To Attend U.S. Naval Drills

[HuffingtonPost]

By Phil Stewart                

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - China's People's Liberation  Army has accepted an invitation to participate for the first  time in a major U.S.-hosted naval drill, but legal restrictions  will limit its role to less sensitive exercises, like disaster  relief, U.S. officials say.                

Beijing's agreement to join the drills being held next year  comes at a moment of heightened tensions between China and U.S.  ally Japan over disputed East China Sea islets, and unease in  the United States about China's rapid military buildup and its  cyber capabilities.                

The Rim of the Pacific exercise, known as RIMPAC, is billed  as the world's largest international maritime exercise, with 22  nations and more than 40 ships and submarines participating the  last time it was held off Hawaii in 2012.                

Not all the participants are treaty allies with the United  States. Last year's participants included Russia and India.                

But China has never participated in the event, although it  did send observers to RIMPAC in 1998, the Pentagon said.                

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged China  had agreed to participate in RIMPAC during a little-noticed  speech on Wednesday in Jakarta. Carter said he was "delighted  that they have accepted" the American invitation, extended last  year by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.                

At the time, Panetta said he asked China to send a ship to  the exercises. Beijing said later it would give the offer  "positive consideration."                

"We seek to strengthen and grow our military-to-military  relationship with China, which matches and follows our growing  political and economic relationship," Carter said, according to  prepared remarks on the Defense Department's website.                

U.S. law prohibits the Pentagon from any military contacts  with the PLA if it could "create a national security risk due to  an inappropriate exposure" to activities including joint combat  operations.                

There is an exemption for operations or exercises related to  search and rescue and humanitarian relief, and China   participated with the United States last year in a  counter-piracy drill.                                

'SECURITY SAFEGUARDS'                

Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon  spokeswoman, said China's participation in RIMPAC would adhere  to U.S. law and noted precautions taken by the Navy in drills to  avoid revealing sensitive information.                

"The U.S. Navy has operational security safeguards to  protect U.S. technology and tactics, techniques and procedures  from disclosure," Wilkinson said.                

Dean Cheng, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a  conservative Washington think tank, questioned whether Chinese  intelligence operatives would not benefit from their  participation in RIMPAC, which also includes live-fire exercises  by key U.S. allies.                

"If they have a frigate, or even a hospital ship, in the  middle of that exercise, the hospital ship is going to be  staffed by intelligence officers," Cheng said.                

He noted that if the drills were designed in a way that was  unhelpful to the Chinese, they would also be unhelpful to  allies.                

Wilkinson declined to speculate about which drills China  might participate in, noting the agenda had not yet been set for  next year's event.                

"U.S.-China military-to-military engagements can include a  range of activities in areas of mutual interest including  maritime security, military medicine and humanitarian  assistance/disaster relief," she said.                

Commander Charles Brown, a spokesman for the Navy's Third  Fleet, said the initial planning conference for RIMPAC 2014  would take place in May.                

"We're proud of our ability to design an exercise that  everyone feels meets their objectives and is comfortable with,"  Brown said.        (Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Via: HuffingtonPost