China said its military seized a US Navy unmanned underwater glider in the South China Sea, but it would give the drone back.
However, US president-elect Donald Trump later said on Twitter that the Chinese government should be told “we don’t want the drone they stole back.”
That came after US officials had confirmed that they “secured an understanding” for the return of the device.
The Chinese navy on Thursday seized the drone, which the US Pentagon said was being operated by civilian contractors to conduct oceanic research.
The US lodged a formal diplomatic complaint and demanded the drone back.
Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Yang Yujun (楊宇軍) late on Saturday issued a statement saying that a Chinese navy lifeboat discovered an unknown device in the South China Sea on Thursday.
“In order to prevent this device from posing a danger to the safe navigation of passing ships and personnel, the Chinese lifeboat adopted a professional and responsible attitude in investigating and verifying the device,” Yang said.
The statement said that after confirming that the device was a US unmanned submerged device, “China decided to transfer it to the US through appropriate means.”
The US said that “through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return” the uncrewed underwater vehicle, said Peter Cook, a spokesman for US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
However, Trump, after holding a rally to thank supporters for his election victory, took to Twitter to criticize the deal.
“We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!” the president-elect tweeted on Saturday evening.
He earlier in the day had blasted the seizure.
Misspelling “unprecedented,” he tweeted: “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters — rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act.”
He later reissued the tweet, correcting the spelling.
The US said China’s “unlawful seizure” came in international waters.
However, China pointedly accused the US of long-sending ships “in China’s presence” to conduct “military surveying.”
“China is resolutely opposed to this and requests the US stop such activities,” it said. “China will continue to maintain vigilance against the relevant US activities and will take necessary measures to deal with them.”
The drone was seized while collecting unclassified scientific data about 92km northwest of Subic Bay near the Philippines in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said on Friday.
“It is ours. It’s clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again,” Davis told reporters.
He said the drone costs about US$150,000 and is largely commercial, off-the-shelf technology.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS