Will seized underwater drone yield any US secrets for China?
Beijing likely to take the vehicle apart and pore over it for valuable information about US navy technology, says John McCain
A top US lawmaker said China may be poring over a seized underwater drone to unearth secret information about the American navy’s technology, hours after US president-elect Donald Trump suggested Beijing should “keep it.”
“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. And some of it is pretty valuable,” Senator John McCain said on CNN’s State of the Union programme on Sunday.
The comments by McCain, who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, underscored the US political tensions touched off by China’s decision to scoop up the submersible in international waters in the South China Sea.
Assurances from China that the vessel would be returned failed to quiet American critics – including Trump, who initially denounced the snatch-and-grab move and then reversed himself hours later.