YOU are silly.
The Kuril Islands are currently under Russian jurisdiction. Further, the islands have a history of being occupied by one side or the other. There is no valid comparison between the Kuril Islands and the SCS.
More silliness.
If I make it clear that I
DISCARD that object, then there is no theft if someone picked it up. We did not throw away that UUV.
No, the police do not have that power. Go to any shopping center and you will see plenty of unattended parked cars.
But seriously, the open sea is not the road. The open sea is more like public land where I can park my SUV anywhere I like and leave it unattended while I go target shooting out of sight.
During the theft, the
Bowditch was only a few hundred meters away from the UUV. Continuing with your police analogy, if the officer sees me approaching my car with my keys obviously in plain sight, he will do nothing and let me tend to my car. China have been stalking the
Bowditch for quite some time all the way into the Philippines' EEZ, so China is fully aware of who is the owner of that UUV.
Face it, pal. Your China was simply a thief.
And China is in the wrong.
More wrong. The lawyers already done the homework for you.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/chinas-capture-us-underwater-drone-violates-law-sea