Pentagon not happy with China’s seizure of US Navy drone

The radio contact was acknowledged by the PRC Navy ship, but the request was ignored.

China says it will hand over an underwater USA drone it seized in the global waters of the South China Sea, prompting President-elect Donald Trump to say the United States should tell China to keep the device.

The U.S. Navy ocean glider was collecting oceanographic data when it was seized by a Dalang Class Chinese ship 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines, according to the Pentagon. He called for a “determined response” from the US and its allies.

According to a USA defense official, the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic vessel, was conducting research using an underwater drone.

“The Chinese are able to do a thing called reverse-engineering, where they are able to – while they hold this drone, able to find out all of the technical information”.

U.S. research vessel USNS Bowditch was collecting scientific data on the waters in worldwide waters of the South China Sea when one of its drones was taken.

On Saturday, the Chinese defense ministry said they would return drone in an “appropriate manner”.

A piece in Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, cites Chinese military analysts saying the drone should be a wake-up call that the US must stop “its spying activities in the South China Sea”. The Pentagon said that China will return the vehicle after “direct engagement” between Washington and Beijing.

China seizure of the drone in the South China Sea is seen by some observers as one of the most significant disputes being the US and China in years.

That ruling is “legally binding, but all but impossible to enforce”, as NPR’s Anthony Kuhn put it at the time.

CSIS experts wrote that China’s new island armaments “show that Beijing is serious about defence of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea”.

Looking forward, the nature of China’s new military deployments will likely be calibrated in response to moves taken by the US, said the IISS’s Neill.

President-elect Donald Trump lashed out early Saturday at China for its seizure of a USA underwater drone in the South China Sea.

Tensions between the U.S. and China have been rocky since the president-elect took a call from Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan.

Trump repeatedly criticized China on the campaign trail, including blaming the country for American job losses.

NPR’s Rob Schmitz wrote last month that it’s hard to tell how Trump’s presidency will affect ties with China, which has been spending “more than ever” to expand its military capabilities.

The flap over the drone comes as Trump’s election generates concern among Chinese authorities, with the president-elect questioning long-standing US policy on China and continuing his sharp criticism of Beijing’s trade and monetary policies.

Bonnie Glaser, senior advisor for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the seizure of the glider occurred inside the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, not China, and appeared to be a violation of international law.