China condemned that most recent as an “illegal provocation.” | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images U.S. kicks China out of military exercise

The United States has revoked an invitation to China's People's Liberation Army Navy to participate in a naval exercise, the Pentagon announced Wednesday, citing Beijing's destabilizing moves in the South China Sea — including deploying weapons and other military equipment on contested islands and artificial reefs. “China’s continued militarisation of disputed features in the South China Sea only serves to raise tensions and destabilise the region,” Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a spokesman at the US Defence Department, said in statement explaining the retraction of China’s invitation to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific naval drills. US threatens Beijing with ‘consequences’ for ‘militarising South China Sea’

“China’s behaviour is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the Rim of the Pacific exercises.”

The US’s move comes just days after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force disclosed that its highly advanced H-6K strategic bomber landed for the first time on an island reef in the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the Defense Department had reversed an earlier invitation to the Chinese Navy to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world’s largest international naval exercise, over the decision to place anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and electronic jammers in the Spratly Islands. Hong Kong-based military observer Song Zhongping said China’s landing of the H-6K bomber on Woody Island was aimed at strengthening China’s military presence in the region after US B-52 bombers flew there during a so-called routine training mission in April, flights described by Beijing as a “provocative move”. “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 U.S. move was condemned by China’s top diplomat who coincidentally was visiting Washington to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We hope that the U.S. will change such a negative mindset.”

Over the weekend China’s air force landed bombers on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the region, triggering concern from Vietnam and the Philippines. The Pentagon has rescinded an invitation to China to participate in an international military exercise in the Pacific Ocean next month, sending a signal of disapproval to Beijing for what U.S. officials say is its refusal to back off on militarizing islands in the South China Sea.
The Pentagon announces that it has "disinvited" China from this year's biennial Rim of the Pacific naval exercise, after China announced in January that it had accepted the United States' invitation.