(This has happened to some degree for decades. )
China was invited into the prestigious Rim of the Pacific maritime exercises in Hawaii in 2014 and 2016 (the drills are held every two years) but it wasn't allowed to participate in 2018.
China sent a spy ship to monitor the event anyway in 2018. The rising Asian power is not likely to take part in the summer 2020 RIMPAC, either.
“China has not been involved in the planning process,” which is nearing its midpoint, said Cmdr. John Fage, a spokesman for the Navy's 3rd Fleet in San Diego, which plans the exercise.
The U.S. government in recent years has been more strident than ever in condemning China as a revisionist power and taken steps to interdict Chinese espionage and influence. A bitter trade war has added to the tension.
So it makes the dwindling military-to-military exercises such as the “disaster management exchange” planned through Nov. 26 on the Big Island stand out that much more as the exception to the growing rule.
(The disaster relief drill is for situations like the disaster if Chernobyl. It took a global effort to protect every country around the world.)