China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has accepted an invitation to participate for the first time in a major US-hosted naval drill, but legal restrictions will limit its role to less sensitive exercises, like disaster relief, US officials say.
Beijing’s agreement to join the drills being held next year comes at a moment of heightened tensions between China and US ally Japan over disputed East China Sea islets, and unease in the US about China’s rapid military buildup and its cybercapabilities.
The Rim of the Pacific exercise (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 last year.
Not all the participants are treaty allies with the US. Last year’s participants included Russia and India.
However, China has never participated in the event, although it did send observers to RIMPAC in 1998, the Pentagon said.
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