A Chinese surveillance ship is spying on a U.S. military exercise off the coast of Hawaii after the country was disinvited from the war games over its use of militarized features in the South China Sea.
“The US Pacific Fleet has been monitoring a Chinese navy surveillance ship operating in the vicinity of Hawaii outside US territorial seas,” US Navy Capt. Charles Brown said in a statement Friday, according to CNN. “We expect this ship will remain outside of US territorial seas and not operate in a manner that disrupts the ongoing Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise.”
A U.S. military official told CNN that the ship arrived in the waters by Hawaii on July 11 and hasn’t entered the U.S.’s territorial waters.
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China was disinvited from the military exercise in May after the country’s “continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea,” according to the Pentagon.
That included China’s deployment of anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers, according to CNN.
China participated in the exercise when it was last held in 2016, but sent ships to surveil the war games in 2014 and 2016, the network reported.
The Rim of the Pacific Exercise is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise and is held biennially in Hawaii.