Responding to China seizing an underwater drone Dec. 16 in the South China Sea, 57 miles from Subic Bay, Philippines, President-elect Donald Trump said the Chinese government should be told “we don’t want the drone they stole back,” Trump Tweeted causing a media hubbub. Ripped in the media Dec. 3 for taking a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, China lodged a formal protest of Trump violating the One China policy. Calling Taiwan “petty,” Beijing ripped the Democratic Nationalist Chinese that fled the tyrannical Maoist revolution Oct. 1, 1949, when Mao Zedong drove Nationalist Gen. Chian Kai-shek to the island of Formosa, known today as the government of Taiwan. Mao massacred some 40 million Chinese en route to his Marist-Leninist revolution. Telling Trump with whom he can speak goes over the top.
Disgusted by the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, the mainstream press continues its unrelenting criticism of Trump. While China agreed to return undersea drone, the press blames Trump to delaying its return with his latest Tweet. Accidentally Tweeting China’s actions “unpresidented,” the press wants to pile on Trump’s typo, rather than understand the principle that the U.S. under Trump will not kowtow to any country, no matter what their threats. China’s overreaction to Trump taking a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan shows Beijing’s insecurity about the so-called One China policy, where the U.S. since 1979, under former President Jimmy Carter, sold out Taiwan, ending formal diplomatic relations. Under the April 10, 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. has a contractual obligation to defend Taiwan militarily against a Chinese communist invasion.
Ripping Trump for antagonizing Beijing, the media reflects eight years of President Barack Obama’s feckless foreign policy, ceding American power to the U.N. Security Council. Trump’s newly-minted 44-yer-old Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace that Trump has no plans of changing the One China policy. What Trump won’t tolerate is Red China telling him with whom he can take phone calls. Plucking the U.S. underwater drone from the South China Sea, Beijing justified its actions. “In order to prevent this device from posing a danger to safe navigation of the passing ships and personnel, the Chinese lifeboat adopted a professional and responsible attitude in investigating and verifying the device,” said Chinese Defense spokesman Yang Yujun. When Yujun talks of “investigating and verifying the device,” he’s talking of reverse engineering.
Trump’s point about China keeping the drone is that he recognizes Chinese authorities plan to return the device only when it’s thoroughly dismantled its technology. Whatever agreement the White House has with China, it’s no different that when China forced down a sophisticated EP3 spy plane on Hainan Island April 1, 2001, keeping its 24-member crew for 11 days, returning the plane 10 weeks later in pieces after re-engineering. When the U.S. gets back its undersea drone, you can be sure it won’t be in one piece. “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone the stole drone back—let them keep it,” Trump told a rally in Mobile, Alabama Dec. 17. “Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return” the drone, said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook speaking for Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
Calling Chinese actions a “gross violation of international law,” Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, blasted China for crossing the line. China ignored the Philippine’s lawsuit in The Hague, ruling July 12 that they had no right to sovereignty of shallow islands in the South China Sea. Seizing a U.S. drone in international waters shows that China follows no one’s rules other than its own. No one in the South China Sea has the resources to stop China from militarizing international waters, claiming sovereignty to the waterway bordering Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. “It is ours. It’s clearly marked ours. We would like it back and we would like this not to happen again,” said Navy spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis. Calling the drone “largely commercial, $150,000, off-the-shelf technology,” it’s no wonder Trump said let them keep it.
Blasting Trump at every turn, the mainstream media doesn’t get the real message behind the 2016 election: Voters rejected the egregious left-wing bias trying to get Hillary elected. Ripping Trump for typos or taking phone calls from world leaders shows that the mainstream media continues to hurt its credibility. No citizen of the U.S. should be told by a foreign power with whom they should speak, regardless of the Taiwan Relations Act or any other diplomatic accord. Under Obama, Chinese bullying has gone unabated, only getting worse. McCain told CNN’s State of the Union he hoped things would get better under Trump. Trying to recover gliders in the South China Sea Dec. 16, the USNS Bowditch was approached by a Chinese vessel, seizing the gliders inside the commercial Philippine waters. Trump’s got his hands full dealing with China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.
