China’s navy will send five ships to join a major US-hosted naval drill this summer, even as tension mounts between the world’s two largest economies over the South China Sea.
The Rim of the Pacific exercise, or Rimpac, billed as the world’s largest international maritime exercise, is held every two years in Hawaii in June and July.
Critics of the Obama administration, including US Senator John McCain, have said the United States should bar China from the drills to show America’s disapproval of its military actions.
The US and its allies have expressed growing concern over the Asian giant’s military build-up, as well as its increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea.
China’s Defence Ministry, in a short statement on Thursday, said its flotilla, including two warships and a hospital ship, would participate in live fire, anti-piracy, search and rescue and other drills.
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