'Let them keep it!': Donald Trump says China should keep seized US drone
Donald Trump has said China should keep a US underwater drone seized in international waters despite Beijing agreeing to give it back.
"We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back -let them keep it!," the US President-elect tweeted.
On Saturday, he also slammed the seizure as an "unpresidented [sic] act".
Mr Trump, who angered China earlier this month when he broke with decades of US policy on China to call Taiwan's leaders, criticised the seizure on Twitter.
But he appeared to misspell "unprecedented", writing: "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act."
He later reissued the tweet, correcting the spelling to "unprecedented".
The president-elect has risked further inflaming relations with China and raises fears of US-China tensions.
Chinese authorities have offered little comment on why one of Beijing's naval vessels picked up the drone, but Beijing has accused the US of "hyping up" the incident.
China has said its military is in touch with its US counterparts over the return of a US underwater drone seized in the South China sea.
"China decided to return it [the drone] to the US side in an appropriate manner, and China and the US have all along been in communication about it," the Chinese defence ministry said on its website.
"During this process, the US side's unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this."
The Pentagon later agreed it had "reached an understanding" that the drone will be returned.
The unmanned underwater glider, launched by the oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch, was picked up on Thursday while collecting unclassified scientific data about 92km northwest of Subic Bay in the South China Sea, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday.
"It is ours. It's clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again," Davis said.
He added the drone costs about $150,000 and is largely commercial, off-the-shelf technology.
China considers large sections of the South China sea as its own territory.
Chinese officials said simply that a Chinese naval vessel had found a piece of "unidentified equipment" and checked it to prevent any navigational safety issues.