Vietnamese customs seized a Chinese tourist's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Friday when he was trying to enter the country, accusing him of endangering Vietnam's national security, the Qianjiang Evening News reported Wednesday.
The man, referred to in reports by the online name Liang Zhen, from East China's Zhejiang Province, told the Vietnamese customs that he was an amateur photographer and owned a DJI Inspire 1, a popular UAV model and that he planned to use the UAV in Vietnam to take aerial pictures for fun.
However, Liang said that Vietnamese customs officers took him and his friends to an office and asked Liang to hand over his UAV and its batteries.
Liang said the officers then asked him to sign a notice in Vietnamese. According to Liang's tour guide, the notice said that the customs had identified a suspicious object in his baggage, which could fly and take photos, and that customs decided to confiscate the UAV as it could pose a threat to national security. Liang was also told by customs officers that his behavior violated a Vietnamese law issued in 2008.
The notice also said that the authorities would contact Liang if they decided to punish him.
Liang claimed that after confiscating his UAV, the customs officers did not detain him further. He has finished his trip in Vietnam and planned to return to China on Wednesday.
According to the Qianjiang Evening News report, the Embassy of China in Vietnam helped Liang hire a lawyer to represent him.
The report added that Vietnamese customs told Liang he has to pay 60 million Vietnamese Dong ($2,800) if he wants to take back his UAV. However Liang told thepaper.cn that he does not plan to pay this fine.
This is not the first time that Chinese people got in trouble when traveling abroad with UAVs. In September 2015, a Chinese national surnamed Guang was investigated by Indian police for using a UAV to take pictures of a pilgrimage on the Ganges River.
