Is US Navy Glider Stolen By the Chinese A Test for President-Elect Trump?

I think this is an accurate assessment of why the Chinese stole the US Navy glider earlier this week:

As mentioned above, this incident does leave one thinking of the 2001 Hainan and 2009 USS Impeccableincidents as tests by China of an incoming administration. Indeed, Donald Trump’s recent moves on China — including his call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and repeated criticism of Chinese economic and security practices, including in the South China Sea — may well have caught Chinese policymakers off-guard. Trump’s flirting with a revision to the U.S. “one China” policy in particular has raised particular concern in Beijing, which regards U.S. compliance with its “one China” principle as a sine qua non for diplomatic relations.

Deriving Chinese intentions from the glider-seizure is but an exercise in speculation at this point, but it isn’t unthinkable that Beijing, recognizing Trump’s highly unusual diplomatic style, is choosing to test his rhetorical response thresholds at least before he enters office.   [The Diplomat]

You can read more at the link, but I like the idea of sailing a US Navy ship on a freedom of navigation patrol right through their 12 mile territorial limit around one of their artificial islands.  The islands have been declared illegal by an international court so the Chinese would have no legal standing to complain.  It will be interesting to see how the Obama administration responds to this; they may not want an international crisis on their hands shortly before leaving the White House.