(Photo: Liu Rui, AP)

China’s Defense Ministry says it will return the U.S. Navy underwater drone it captured operating in international waters in the South China Sea, after it seized the device to ensure the “safe navigation of passing ships.”

Yang Yujun, a ministry spokesman, issued a statement late Saturday saying a Chinese navy lifeboat discovered the unknown device in the South China Sea on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. It was the first by a U.S. president or president-elect since President Jimmy Carter acknowledged in 1979 China's position that Taiwan is part of “One China.”

In its statement, China also accused the U.S. of deploying “ships in China’s presence to conduct reconnaissance and military surveying. The drone, which the Pentagon said was operating lawfully and was clearly marked as U.S. property, was collecting data about the salinity, temperature and clarity of the water about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay, off the Philippines. Davis said the USNS Bowditch, which is not a combat ship, was stopped in international waters Thursday afternoon when the Chinese ship approached. While media reports are still sketchy, it appears that a Chinese naval vessel was close enough to a US oceanographic survey ship to launch a small boat to grab the scientific drone as the American vessel was preparing to retrieve it. "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act," Trump said in a tweet early on Saturday from his seaside resort club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where he plans to spend the holidays.
The Chinese Defense Ministry says it is in talks with the United States about returning an underwater drone taken Thursday from the South China Sea. The Pentagon says the drone, used for gathering weather and temperature data, is not armed.