China on Monday rejected President- elect Donald Trump’s charge that it “stole” an American drone, saying the device was picked up to prevent “harm” to freedom of navigation in the disputed South China Sea, from where Beijing claims the US is spying on Chinese coast.
“First of all we did not like the word stealing. This is also not accurate,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. His claim had come hours after the Chinese government had said it had been in touch with the US military about the incident.
Hua said both militaries are handling the issue “smoothly”. She also denied US allegations that the Chinese naval ship picked it up and took it away despite messages from the US survey ship USNS Bowditch which controlled the drone.
“As really what happened you can see from Defence Ministry statement that the Chinese navy found this unidentified device and examined in a professional manner to verify it,” Hua said.
“No matter how they see this unidentified device, most important thing is that Chinese navy took a professional and responsible decision to do this in order to prevent from causing harm to freedom of navigation,” she said.