--- title: Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Drone description: President-elect Donald Trump lashed out early Saturday at China for its seizure of a U.S. underwater drone in the South China Sea canonical: https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-17T15:38:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:15.254Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Underwater Drone og:description: He criticized the move as an "unpresidented act" og:url: https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7b69208b1bfae9/6988b3562dce0181459ebc2a/donald-trump-china-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Elect Donald Trump Holds Victory Rally In Pennsylvania og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Underwater Drone twitter:description: He criticized the move as an "unpresidented act" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7b69208b1bfae9/6988b3562dce0181459ebc2a/donald-trump-china-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Underwater Drone > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 17, 2016 3:38 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Giant Center on Dec. 15, 2016 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Giant Center on Dec. 15, 2016 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Mark Wilson/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 17, 2016 3:38 PM UTC President-elect [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4605647/donald-trump-vicious-violent-supporters/) lashed out early Saturday at [China](http://time.com/4605646/china-us-navy-drone-discussions/) for its seizure of a U.S. underwater drone in the [South China Sea](http://time.com/4402562/south-china-sea-hague-ruling/). “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act,” Trump said on Twitter, later [correcting the misspelling](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/810121703288410112) to “unprecedented.” The drone was seized by the Chinese navy on Thursday off the coast of the Philippines. “It is understood that China and the United States are using military channels to appropriately handle this issue,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, [according to Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-drone-idUSKBN14526J). Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook on Friday called on China to return the drone, [Politico reported](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-china-drone-seizure-232775). “It is ours, and it is clearly marked as ours and we would like it back. And we would like this not to happen again,” Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said. In the weeks since he was elected, [Trump has added controversy](http://time.com/4597446/donald-trump-one-china-taiwan-global-times/) to the U.S. relationship with China, taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan and then suggesting that the U.S. might no longer recognize the longstanding [“one China” policy](http://time.com/4597532/donald-trump-taiwan-one-china/). China has moved to [claim the South China Sea](http://time.com/4402562/south-china-sea-hague-ruling/) as its own territory, sparking pushback from the U.S. and others in the international community. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Underwater Drone","datePublished":"2016-12-17T15:38:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:15.254Z","description":"He criticized the move as an \"unpresidented act\"","url":"https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","China","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7b69208b1bfae9/6988b3562dce0181459ebc2a/donald-trump-china-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7b69208b1bfae9/6988b3562dce0181459ebc2a/donald-trump-china-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Elect Donald Trump Holds Victory Rally In Pennsylvania","caption":"President Elect Donald Trump Holds Victory Rally In Pennsylvania","creditText":"Mark Wilson/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4605656/donald-trump-china-us-drone/","name":"Donald Trump Hits China Over Seizure of U.S. Underwater Drone"}}]}] ```