Trump wrote via Twitter that it was an "unpresidented" act that China seized a US in the international waters of the disputed South China Sea.
#unpresidented indeed. pic.twitter.com/rHCv3ytHka
— Chris Sacca (@sacca) 17 декабря 2016 г.
Editors of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary mocked the US president-elect by saying that the word is definitely a "new one."
Good morning! The #WordOfTheDay is…not 'unpresidented'. We don't enter that word. That's a new one. https://t.co/BJ45AtMNu4
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) 17 декабря 2016 г.
Later, Trump fixed his mistake, replacing his Tweet with a new one.
China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters — rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 17 декабря 2016 г.
On Thursday, USNS Bowditch, a US oceanographic vessel, stopped some 100 miles off the port at Subic Bay in the Philippines to pick up two drones when a Chinese vessel captured one of them, according to US defense officials. The US Department of Defense urged to immediately return the drone, calling the capture illegal.
Meanwhile, the United States alleged that China ignored requests for the drone to be returned.
The drone is not a classified piece of equipment and is used to gather data on water temperature, salinity and the speed of sound, according Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.