WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - A Chinese warship has seized an underwater drone deployed
by a U.S. oceanographic vessel in the South China Sea, triggering a
formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return, U.S. officials
told Reuters on Friday.
The
drone was taken on Thursday, 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.
The
Pentagon confirmed the incident at a news briefing and said the drone
used commercially available technology and sold for about $150,000.
Still, the Pentagon viewed China's seizure seriously since it had effectively taken U.S. military property.
"It
is ours, and it is clearly marked as ours and we would like it back.
And we would like this not to happen again," Pentagon spokesman Jeff
Davis said.
Senator
Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, called the seizure "a remarkably brazen violation of
international law."
U.S.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus cited a "growing China" as one of the reasons
that the Navy needed to expand its fleet to 355 ships, including 12
carriers, 104 large surface combatants, 38 amphibious ships and 66
submarines.
The
seizure will add to concerns about China's increased military presence
and aggressive posture in the disputed South China Sea, including its
militarization of maritime outposts.
It
coincided with saber-rattling from Chinese state media and some in its
military establishment after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump cast
doubt on whether Washington would stick to its nearly four-decades-old
policy of recognizing that Taiwan is part of "one China."
President
Barack Obama said on Friday it was appropriate for Trump to take a
fresh look at U.S. policy toward Taiwan, but he cautioned the idea that
Taiwan is part of one China is central to China's view of itself as a
nation.
"If
you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought
through whatever the consequences are," Obama told a news conference,
noting Beijing's reaction could be "very significant."
A
U.S. research group this week said new satellite imagery indicated
China has installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile
systems, on all seven artificial islands it has built in the South China
Sea.
Mira
Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow in the Asia-Pacific Security Program at
the Center for a New American Security, said China would have a hard
time explaining its actions.
"This
move, if accurately reported, is highly escalatory, and it is hard to
see how Beijing will justify it legally," Rapp-Hooper said.
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The
drone was part of an unclassified program to collect oceanographic data
including salinity, temperature and clarity of the water, the U.S.
official added. The data can help inform U.S. military sonar data since
such factors affect sound.
The
USNS Bowditch, a U.S. Navy ship crewed by civilians that carries out
oceanographic work, had already retrieved one of two of its drones,
known as ocean gliders, when a Chinese Navy Dalang 3 class vessel took
the second one.
Officials
said the Bowditch was only 500 meters (yards) from the drone and,
observing the Chinese intercede, used bridge-to-bridge communications to
demand it be returned.
The Chinese ship acknowledged the communication but did not respond to the Bowditch's demands, the Pentagon's Davis said.
"The
only thing they said after they were sailing off into the distance was:
"we are returning to normal operations," Davis said.
The
United States issued the formal demarche, as such protests are known,
through diplomatic channels and included a demand that China immediately
return the drone. The Chinese acknowledged it but have not responded,
officials said.
The
seizure happened a day after China's ambassador to the United States
said Beijing would never bargain with Washington over issues involving
its national sovereignty or territorial integrity.
"Basic
norms of international relations should be observed, not ignored,
certainly not be seen as something you can trade off," Ambassador Cui
Tiankai, speaking to executives of top U.S. companies, said on
Wednesday.
He did not specifically mention Taiwan, or Trump's decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan's president on Dec. 2.
The
call was the first such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect
or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic
recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part
of "one China."
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