iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A U.S. oceanographic underwater drone was stolen by a Chinese Navy warship in international waters west of the Philippines on Thursday. The United States has filed a diplomatic protest with China over the incident.
According to a U.S. defense official, the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic vessel, was conducting research using an underwater drone. The waters where the incident occurred are known as the South China Sea.
The American ship’s crew was in the process of recovering an autonomous drone that was about 500 yards away when a small boat deployed from a nearby Chinese Navy warship headed toward the drone. The crew of that small boat was spotted plucking the drone from the water and returning it to the Chinese vessel.
The American crew attempted to contact the Chinese vessel by radio but did not receive a response until after the Chinese vessel had moved away.
The U.S. defense official said there was no indication as to why the Chinese would want to pick up an unclassified drone used for ocean research.
The State Department has filed a diplomatic protest known as a demarche with China about the incident.
The South China Sea has become an international focal point for China, the United States and other countries in the region.
China has claimed seven reefs in the Spratly Island chain as its own, essentially dredging them into islands. There are also territorial claims over the Paracel Islands located east of Vietnam and the Scarborough Shoal, 200 miles west of the Philippines.
New satellite imagery released publicly by a Washington think-tank this week seem to indicate that China has begun placing “significant” military defenses on the artificial islands it has built up in the Spratly Islands.
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