Beijing says it will return seized drone in ‘appropriate manner’, while US president-elect Donald Trump accuses China of theft
US says survey vessel taken unlawfully, while analysts in China see the move as within Beijing’s rights
China said it would return a US navy drone seized in international waters in the South China Sea “in an appropriate manner” as both countries accused the other of ratcheting up tensions in the region.
In a statement issued on Saturday night, the Chinese defence ministry said it had taken the drone for verification and accused the United States of “making a fuss” over the incident.
According to the Pentagon, the US lodged a formal diplomatic protest and demanded the return of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), which it said was “unlawfully” taken by a Chinese warship on Thursday near Subic Bay off the Philippines.
Trump waded into the debate on Saturday night, Beijing time, with an initially misspelled tweet saying China had stolen the drone in international waters in an “unpresidented” act, before he corrected his wording almost an hour later.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the incident took place when the US oceanographic survey ship Bowditch was about to retrieve the drone, an unclassified “ocean glider” used around the world to gather data on salinity and water temperature.