The latest incident in the South China Sea is a tempest in a teapot but the state of US-China relations is “so precarious that the slightest incident can generate tensions that could lead to a confrontation with serious repercussions,” according to Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.
On Saturday, China said the United States was “hyping up” a recent incident in which an American underwater drone was captured by a Chinese naval vessel in the South China Sea.
The drone was deployed by an American oceanographic survey ship in international waters in the South China Sea when the Chinese launched a small boat on Thursday and snatched the unmanned underwater vehicle, the Pentagon said Friday.
The US Defense Department demanded that China return the drone that was “unlawfully seized” in the South China Sea, an episode that threatens to increase tensions between Washington and…