China faces a practically-permanent ban from participating in major U.S.-led military drills in the Pacific Rim, under a provision of the newly-released Senate defense authorization bill.
“We do military exercises with our friends, not our potential adversaries,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the author of the amendment to the latest National Defense Authorization Act, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis disinvited China from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises, a major drill conducted largely between U.S. allies, in response to China’s deployment of military systems to strategically-significant islands in the South China Sea. Cruz’s bill makes the ban permanent, unless China abandons its claim to sovereignty over the vital shipping lanes. The proposal is just one example of lawmakers using the defense bill to take aim at China, in light of a growing perception of the leading Asian power as an American rival.
“President Obama’s invitation for Communist China to participate in RIMPAC was a part of his overall failed policy toward China, which relied on the false hope that if we integrate the Chinese into the global community they will magically reform and democratize,” Cruz said. “Instead of participating productively in the exercises, they used them as an opportunity to spy on us.”
The 2019 defense bill includes several other provisions targeting China. The Pentagon will be banned from doing business with two major Chinese telecommunications companies that U.S. officials regard as an espionage risk, for instance. The bill calls for multiple reports on Chinese aggression, including documentation on “military and coercive activities” in the South China Sea. The NDAA also reflects the lawmakers’ increasing emphasis on Chinese propaganda and other forms of soft power.
“[The NDAA] limits DOD funds for Chinese language programs at universities that host a Confucius Institute,” the Senate Armed Services Committee announced, referring to an academic program regarded as a means for the Chinese government to censor and shape American views of the regime. “[It also] modifies the annual report on Chinese military and security developments to include malign influence, including efforts to influence media, cultural institutions, business, and academic and policy communities in the United States.”
Notably, the lawmakers also devote $235 million “to procure deployable air base systems” to the Pacific theater; they’re intended to to enhance the credible combat power of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific region.”
On scale, those proposals speak to a more confrontational posture towards China, even as the U.S. government also hopes to cooperate with them in pressuring the North Korean regime to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Mattis denied “ratcheting up anything” when asked Thursday about the decision to disinvite China from RIMPAC.
“[W]e are cooperating with China wherever we can, and we are going to have to also confront them when we believe that the rule of law or that matters that can destabilize the region are being pursued,” he told reporters. “But so long as China continues to militarize features in the South China Sea and what is traditionally, historically, international waters, and militarizing them with weapons that, just a few years ago, they said they would not be putting there, then we have to acknowledge that reality.”
He was more general when warning the Air Force Academy graduates of the return of great power rivalry — a dynamic that seemed to fall dormant after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Each of you are now responsible for ensuring American air superiority survives in a world of renewed competition,” Mattis said. “And as you step into your new roles, my expectation for you is quite simple. Always be ready to fight and to win. There’s no room for complacency as our adversaries do everything in their power to erode our military’s competitive edge.”
