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A Chinese ship has reportedly seized an underwater survey drone in full sight of a US Navy contracted research vessel.
The drone was taken on Dec. 15, the first seizure of its kind in recent memory, about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch was about to retrieve the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), officials said.
"The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"It's a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water - that it was U.S. property," the official said.
From the CNN report:
The US got no answer from the Chinese on the radio when it said the drone was American property, the official said.
[...] US oceanographic research vessels are often followed in the water under the assumption they are spying. In this case, however, the drone was simply measuring ocean conditions, the official said.
Some background on why the South China Sea is such a tense place.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:30PM
Since the Chinese were clearly in the wrong in causing the accident and detained the crew instead of simply offering the assistance due any plane calling an emergency they should have been punished in some way instead of a joint statement that "allowed both countries to save face while defusing a potentially volatile situation". No admission of wrongdoing, no reparations, no promise to obey the customs of rendering assistance, nothing. China respects strength so if they balked at taking the hit from accepting full responsibility I'd have just dropped in a press conference the blunt public warning that since our pilot was awesome enough to get our people safely down we would continue working to resolve this issue peacefully but another unprovoked attack on one of our aircraft would be considered an act of war and we would do what we always do to keep the seas and skies open. Then say nothing more and let em stew for a year.
For anyone else, this Hainan Island Incident should help.
Not bothering to dig through the pages of hits about the Obama G20 incident over the boarding ladder to get to details of Obama's more serious failure, but the same solution applies. As to the ass exit incident, i'd have ordered the pilot to make a final request for one and after ten minutes filed a request for refueling and a revised flight plan. The games would have instantly stopped, the point being made.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @03:59AM
Haha, because having Obama have a hissy fit and running home from the G20 wouldn't be a propaganda benefit to anyone...