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China: 'Appropriately Handling' Return of US Drone

By Carla Babb December 17, 2016

China accused the U.S. Friday of "hyping up" the Chinese navy's seizure of a U.S. naval underwater drone from international waters in the South China Sea while the two countries' militaries are in contact to "appropriately handle" the situation.

Beijing also accused Washington of deploying "ships in China's presence to conduct renaissance and military surveying," in a statement released by Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun late Saturday. "China is resolutely opposed to this and requests the U.S. stop such activities.''

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Saturday that the U.S. military had heard from China and that there was an understanding that the drone would be returned, though he gave no timetable for it to happen.

"We have registered our objection to China's unlawful seizure of a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle operating in international waters in the South China Sea. Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States," he said in a statement.

President-elect Donald Trump blasted China's seizure of the drone on Twitter Saturday morning, calling the act "unprecedented."

An earlier version of the tweet, which was deleted and replaced, had misspelled "unprecedented" as "unpresidented."

The Pentagon had used diplomatic channels to call for the immediate return of the glider and to ask that China not repeat similar incidents. Although unmanned, the glider still retains the protections of a sovereign U.S. vessel.

"This is an action that's not in keeping with international law," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said. "It's certainly not something we consider to be commensurate with [China's] level as a professional military."

How it happened

Davis told reporters a civilian-manned Navy oceanographic research vessel was in the process Thursday of recovering two underwater ocean gliders that were "stopped dead in the water" 93 kilometers from Subic Bay in the Philippines when a Chinese military vessel approached.

The Chinese ship dispatched a smaller vessel into the water and snatched one glider as the U.S. Navy ship was retrieving the other one.

"There were multiple attempts over bridge-to-bridge radio to demand it back," Davis said.

"[The Chinese navy] acknowledged the communications on bridge-to-bridge radio, so it wasn't a radio problem, but ignored the requests for it to be returned," he added.

Davis said the Chinese gave no reason for taking the U.S. drone, which he said was worth about $150,000.

As the Chinese vessel was leaving, the only communication its crew sent to the U.S. ship was, "We are returning to normal operations," according to Davis.

The Pentagon said the drone measures unclassified information, including water temperature, clarity, salinity and the speed of sound through water. The data are gathered to help with sonar use, among other things, and are collected by the U.S. military in international waters around the world.

The two gliders being recovered had run a pre-programmed route and had stopped in the South China Sea's international waters for a routine recovery mission, Davis said.