China on Saturday sought to de-escalate tensions arising out of its seizure of an underwater drone belonging to the United States, which has called for its speedy return.
Reuters quoted a Chinese foreign ministry statement as saying that military channels of China and the U.S. have been activated to “appropriately handle” the issue.
“It is understood that China and the United States are using military channels to appropriately handle this issue,” China’s Foreign Ministry statement said.
‘An ocean glider’
Global Times newspaper, affiliated with the Communist Party of China (CPC), quoted a source from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as saying that the issue would be “resolved successfully”. The incident apparently took place on December 15, northwest of Subic Bay, off the Philippines coast. The Chinese side seized the drone just as the U.S. oceanographic ship, Bowditch, was about to retrieve the underwater vehicle. According to the Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, the vehicle was an unclassified “ocean glider” that has been routinely used to gather data on salinity, water temperature and sound speed.
The Hong Kong based South China Morning Post quoted Zhao Xiaozhuo, the director and a senior colonel at the Centre on China-America Defence Relations at the Academy of Military Science, a PLA think-tank, as saying that Beijing and Washington were likely to resolve the issue through negotiations.
“This is an incident between China and the U.S. China has seized a piece of equipment from the U.S. side. They will definitely ask us to return it. But China would say, at least, ‘you can’t behave in this way anymore’. China will more or less ask for some conditions. Then the two sides will enter negotiations. It will only be returned when some form of agreement is reached,” he observed.
The daily also interviewed Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Renmin University, who said that the incident showed “the power of the Chinese Army”. He added: “This incident indicated the contest between the two Armies has entered into a phase of underwater competition.”
Show of strength
There has been a rise in friction between China and the U.S. following President-elect Donald Trump’s statement questioning Washington’s unqualified support for Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan.
After the event, China has embarked on a show of strength, including military exercises by a composite force of ships and fighter jets, led by its aircraft carrier, Liaoning. Fully armed Chinese nuclear bomber HK-6 has also been conducting regular air patrols over the South China Sea.
