Chinese Navy steals US survey drone in international waters

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Friday, December 16, 2016, 12:53 pm

The Defense Department is reporting that a Chinese warship operating in international waters captured and stole a US unmanned drone. And they did it right in front of a US ship.

A US oceanographic vessel Thursday had its underwater drone stolen by a Chinese warship literally right in front of the eyes of the American crew, a US defense official told CNN Friday. ...

[USNS Bowditch] had stopped in the water to pick up two underwater drones. At that point a Chinese naval ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch put a small boat into the water. That small boat came up alongside and the Chinese crew took one of the drones.

The Bowditch is a oceanographic survey ship used for tracking ocean currents and navigational hazards. The drones carried by the bowditch contain no weaponry, and are used in mapping the sea floor.

The incident occurred in the South China Sea, where the Chinese government has recently added weapons to a series of artificial islands. Tensions in the region seem to be increasing since Donald Trump threatened to end the “One China” policy that the United States has followed since 1979. Also on Thursday, China conducted a live fire exercise in the Bohai Sea.

China reacted with mounting fury in December after the president-elect suggested he might revisit the issue of Taiwan’s independence as an opening gambit in trade negotiations with Beijing.

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