Drone incident shows precarious nature of US-China relations: Pundit

The latest incident in the South China Sea is a tempest in a teapot but the state of US-China relations is “so precarious that the slightest incident can generate tensions that could lead to a confrontation with serious repercussions,” according to Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

On Saturday, China said the United States was “hyping up” a recent incident in which an American underwater drone was captured by a Chinese naval vessel in the South China Sea.

The drone was deployed by an American oceanographic survey ship in international waters in the South China Sea when the Chinese launched a small boat on Thursday and snatched the unmanned underwater vehicle, the Pentagon said Friday.

The US Defense Department demanded that China return the drone that was "unlawfully seized" in the South China Sea, an episode that threatens to increase tensions between Washington and Beijing in the disputed waters.

Professor Etler told Press TV on Saturday, “The underwater craft, which costs $150,000, is said to be used to test water salinity, ocean temperature and map underwater channels. The true capabilities of the drone however could go far beyond those stated by the US Navy.”

“Speculation ran rampant after the seizure, leading US President-elect Trump to declare that it had been ripped out of the water and sent to China in an unprecedented act of theft. The latest news, however, is that the Chinese seizure of the craft was precautionary and that after consultations between the two sides, will be promptly returned,” the analyst said.

A spokesperson of the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the Chinese military had retrieved the drone “in order to prevent this device from posing a danger to the safe navigation of passing ships and personnel.”

Yang Yujun stated that the Chinese lifeboat adopted “a professional and responsible attitude in investigating and verifying the device,” after verifying its nature “China decided to transfer it to the US through appropriate means.”

Professor Etler said, “The incident should serve as a precautionary tale. This sort of imbroglio is what happens when irresponsible US politicians stoke the flames of animosity and suspicion against their perceived rivals.”

“The disease of the US political system, known for its dysfunctional vituperative mud-slinging, is also characteristic of how the US conducts foreign policy.  Rather than use back channels to resolve the incident, the US goes full bore, exacerbating tensions in order to impugn the motives behind the purported seizure and cast it as part of the ongoing contention between the two nations,” he noted.

“This sort of brinkmanship bodes ill for the future of US-China relations under a Trump administration,” the academic observed.

“Without any clear idea of the real situation Trump, even prior to his inauguration, shoots from the hip, using rhetorical devises to portray the incident in a provocative fashion. What will be his response when a similar incident occurs under his watch? Situations of this sort could well lead to unintended consequences if not handled properly,” concluded Professor Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. 

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