Maritime safety

5 Takeaways on China's Theft of a US Drone in Philippine Waters in the South China Sea

The glider-seizure was illegal by any measure of international law. International legal experts and South China Sea watchers Julian Ku and James Kraska have already offered two excellent looks at this aspect of the incident at Lawfare. In short, the behavior that the Chinese rescue ship engaged in was not only highly unprofessional, it was an illegal seizure of a U.S. vessel in violation of sovereign immunity. Moreover, the Chinese vessel violated high seas freedoms of the USNS Bowditch under the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea — a treaty China has signed and ratified.

The legal aspect of this incident cannot be overemphasized given that it comes less than six months after China faced legal defeat at the hands of a five-judge tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration over its capacious claims in the South China Sea and its behavior therein. Unfortunately, given the change in government in the Philippines — the once-enthusiastic plaintiff in that case — the reputational costs that had been anticipated for Beijing for being found in transgression of international law never quite materialized.