If China starts a war now because of Trump's trying to end the One China policy Obama might have to declare martial law to fight both them and Russia the way things are presently shaping up.
begin quote from:
US Demands Return of Survey Drone Taken by Chinese in South China Sea
| Wall Street Journal | - |
WASHINGTON—The
U.S. on Friday demanded the return of a underwater survey drone it says
was snatched by a Chinese navy vessel shadowing a U.S.
U.S. Demands Return of Survey Drone Taken by Chinese in South China Sea
Seizure is latest incident of tension between U.S. and Chinese navies in contested sea territory
ENLARGE
U.S. oceanographic
survey ship USNS Bowditch, shown in 2002, which deployed an underwater
survey drone seized by a Chinese Navy vessel in the South China Sea,
according to a U.S. defense official.
Photo:
Reuters
“It’s ours, it was clearly marked, we want it back, and we don’t want this to happen again,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
It was the first time the government in Beijing has seized a piece of U.S. military gear since the Chinese took a Navy surveillance plane on Hainan Island following a midair collision in April 2001. Unlike that incident, the underwater drone was on an unclassified mission and isn’t considered a particularly valuable asset.
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The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. There was no mention of the incident on the website of the Chinese Defense Ministry, and calls to an after-hour duty office phone there weren’t answered.
The seizure of the drone marks the latest and perhaps sharpest point of tension between U.S. and Chinese military forces in and around the South China Sea, a critical trade waterway where China has built artificial islands and laid claim to a vast swath of maritime territory, to the dismay of neighbors and U.S. officials.
A Washington-based think tank reported on Thursday that over the last several months, the Chinese have emplaced small weaponry on seven of the reclaimed islands in the South China Sea.
The incident on Thursday occurred as the U.S. Naval Ship Bowditch, which has a civilian commander, was conducting survey work along the sea floor in the South China Sea using at least two of the underwater drones about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines. It was being shadowed by a Chinese ship, a Dalang 3, a typical occurrence when U.S. ships navigate through those waters, according to Navy and defense officials.
The Chinese ship placed a smaller boat in the water to retrieve the American drone and the U.S. ship established “bridge-to-bridge” communications with the Chinese vessel, about 500 yards away, the Pentagon said, adding that efforts by the American crew to get the Chinese ship to leave the drone in the water were unsuccessful.
The drone, which uses GPS technology, wasn’t easily rerouted away from the Chinese ship, Capt. Davis said. The last communication from the Chinese ship as it departed the area with the drone was: “We are returning to normal operations,” he said.
Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com and Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubol
