China Seizes Unclassified US Military Naval Drone, South China Sea Tensions Escalate


While China is an enormous country with an increasingly aggressive naval presence in the South China Sea — which is a maze of conflicting territorial claims — its navy is no match for that of the United States.  That said, it can certainly create problems, and that is precisely what it is doing.

Note the capture of an unmanned American naval vessel by the Chinese navy.

The Pentagon says a Chinese warship has seized a US Navy underwater drone collecting unclassified data in international waters in the South China Sea.

The incident has prompted a formal démarche from the United States and a demand for its return.

It is the first such seizure in recent memory and took took place on 15 December northwest of Subic Bay, just as the USNS Bowditch – an oceanographic survey ship – was about to retrieve the unmaned underwater vehicle (UUV), a US official told Reuters.

“The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea,” the official said.

“It’s a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water – that it was US property.”

Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the US is asking for the drone’s return.

Obviously, China is doing this to send a message to the United States and to incoming president Donald Trump who has already angered the Chinese by taking a phone call from the leader of Taiwan, a territory which China views as a break-away province that must re-unite with the mainland at some point.

Remarks that are clearly hostile have been made by leaders from both the US and China.  And these remarks have been reinforced by actions that are anything but peaceful.

The incident will add to concerns about China’s growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US security think tank, said in a report late on Wednesday that China appears to have installed anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems designed to guard against missile attack on its seven newly-created islands in the sea.

On Thursday the US Pacific fleet said it was ready to confront China should it continue to pursue overreaching maritime claims in the sea, with a number of other countries in the region also seeing areas of the sea as part of their territory.

How will Mr. Trump handle China?  What sort of foreign policy will he implement?

Source:  The Independent



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