I've opposed contacts with the Chinese military, figuring they'd learn far more about us than we'd learn about them, considering our open nature and their closed nature.
China is sending ships to the next RIMPAC exercise we host. But there are limits on what we can do with the Chinese military:
China's People's Liberation Army has accepted an invitation to participate for the first time in a major U.S.-hosted naval drill, but legal restrictions will limit its role to less sensitive exercises, like disaster relief, U.S. officials say. ...
U.S. law prohibits the Pentagon from any military contacts with the PLA if it could "create a national security risk due to an inappropriate exposure" to activities including joint combat operations. ...
"The U.S. Navy has operational security safeguards to protect U.S. technology and tactics, techniques and procedures from disclosure," Wilkinson said.
Still, just having them around means the Chinese will learn--and we will learn nothing from them:
"If they have a frigate, or even a hospital ship, in the middle of that exercise, the hospital ship is going to be staffed by intelligence officers," Cheng said.
Hopefully, we let them see only what we want them to see--whether it is true, or not.
I'd never heard of those statutory restrictions on Chinese participation. Perhaps they are new. Perhaps just new to me. But at least the situation is better than I feared. Whether it is better enough? That I don't know.
