China Says It Will Return the Underwater Drone It Seized From the US (thehill.com)

An anonymous reader quotes The Hill: China said Saturday it will return the unmanned U.S. drone it seized in the South China Sea, calling the issue "hyped up" by the U.S. "Upon confirming that the device was a U.S. underwater drone, the Chinese side decided to transfer it to the U.S. side in an appropriate manner," said the spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry, Sr. Col. Yang Yujun, according to CNN. "China and the United States have been communicating about this process. It is inappropriate -- and unhelpful for a resolution -- that the U.S. has unilaterally hyped up the issue. We express our regret over that."
A Defense Ministry spokesman added that China opposes U.S. "surveillance and military surveys in waters facing China...and demands the U.S. cease such activities. China will stay alert over relevant U.S. activities and will take necessary measures to counter them."

Comments

Re:They know

[Dutch Gun]

Also, Chinese officials looked inside and realized "Oh, we pretty much make all of these components. Not much we could learn from this, I guess."

Returned in a box

[p51d007]

Happens all the time. In the 70's, a Mig25 landed in Japan, pilot defected with the plane, and "owners manual". Russia was hopping mad and wanted it back, and they did...in a big box ;) I'm sure the US underwater drone, by the time it is returned will have been photographed, scanned, dismantled and every ounce of anything copied. It's how it works.

Confucious say

[Rick Zeman]

"It is inappropriate -- and unhelpful for a resolution -- that the U.S. has unilaterally hyped up the issue. We express our regret over that.""

They express regret over the US being upset at their actions. Umm, okay.

Disassembled....

[stoicio]

-parts photographed
-boards xrayed
-wiring logged
-systems exported to solidworks for analysis

We should have it back to you some time in April.

Signed China

Key omission from American media

[hackingbear]

If you read the Chinese news report, the statement says it "seize the unknown object because it posed safety concern to the passing sea traffic". Of course, it is an excuse. But given we use the excuse of "freedom of navigation" to intrude within the 12 nm of their claimed island, it is a fair game.

Re:Key omission from American media

[mrchaotica]

Similarly, the phrase "waters facing China" in the quote in the summary is a lie. This was the open ocean, not "waters facing China."

Re:Key omission from American media

[MightyMartian]

There's no alternative interpretation of this bit of maritime.lae. if the original sea mount isn't above water at high tide then it isn't an island and pouring gravel and concrete on it does not make it an island, at least not for the purposes of extending maritime economic zones.

China says "what are you going to do, nuke us?"

[mveloso]

So we stole a drone and you freak out. I mean, we already stole islands and you did nothing. Why would you care about a drone?

Re:They know

[CanadianMacFan]

To meet the requirements some assembly would have to be done in the US so they leave the last wire connection for the US "factory". It gets shipped over to the US, unpacked, the cover taken off, the worker follows the diagram to connect the final wire (which actually doesn't do anything), puts the cover back on, and packs it back up. Voila, assembled in America.

We would do exactly the same thing

[Tony Isaac]

If we found a Chinese drone within a few hundred miles of Los Angeles, you KNOW we would pick it up and turn it into an incident. What they are doing is no different. It's a risk we take deploying drones near other countries.