China hasn’t returned a US underwater drone that its navy seized in “international waters” in the South China Sea last week.

The incident has emerged as the latest thorn between China and the US, where President-elect Donald Trump has shown himself increasingly willing to confront and challenge Beijing, reports CNN.

Trump used Twitter to weigh in on the incident, eliciting a scathing response from the Global Times, a provocative but state-sanctioned tabloid.

“He bears no sense of how to lead a superpower,” an opinion piece published in the newspaper said.

“Even the US military did not use the term ‘steal’ to describe the move by the Chinese navy. Trump’s second tweet makes people worry that he will treat China-US relations as child’s play,” it added.

The unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), which the Pentagon also called an “ocean glider,” was seized Thursday from the USNS Bowditch -- an unarmed oceanographic survey ship -- as it was attempting to retrieve it and another underwater vehicle about 50 miles northwest of Subic Bay, in the Philippines.

The Bowditch is operated the US Navy's Military Sealift Command, which does logistics, cargo, humanitarian relief and special missions for the US Navy. Ships in the Bowditch's class are crewed by 24 civilians and 27 military members, according to the Military Sealift Command website.

BDST: 1310 HRS, DEC 19, 2016
SR