TIL Desk/World/Beijing-China “unlawfully” seized an unmanned US naval probe in international waters in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said today, a move sure to heighten tensions around Beijing’s military presence in the disputed area. The underwater probe was taken around 50 nautical miles (90 kilometers) northwest off Subic Bay in the Philippines on Thursday afternoon in a non-violent incident, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said.
The event unfolded as the civilian-crewed USNS Bowditch was retrieving a pair of “naval gliders” that routinely collect information on water temperatures, salinity and sea clarity. A Chinese Dalang-III class submarine rescue ship then stopped within 500 yards (meters) of the Bowditch and snatched one of the probes. The Americans safely hoisted the other one back onto their ship.
Davis said he could not recall another time when something like this has happened, and the Pentagon issued a statement calling on Beijing to “immediately” return the probe that it had “unlawfully seized.” The US personnel “were asking over bridge-to-bridge radio to please leave it there,” Davis said. Other than a brief acknowledgment that it had received the message, the Chinese ship did not respond.
