KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 ― As the world's best clamber in a frantic scramble to seek out MH370, missing today for over a month, a different, more competitive race appears to have emerged in the hunt ― one between China and what was meant to be its teammates from neighbouring nations.

Alistair Bunkall, a defence correspondent with the British Sky News channel, said in a report that the Chinese, after raising hue and cry over Malaysia's alleged inadequacies, are frustrated with their own inability to offer more input in the hunt for the missing jet.

From the beginning, he pointed out, it was expert work by the British, the French and the Americans that helped pinpoint the plane's possible location.

Today, an Australian team headed by retired air chief marshal Angus Houston ― a man who has “kept his nerve” ― is leading searches in the Indian Ocean, where the Boeing 777 is believed to have ended its flight, Bunkall said.

For China, the correspondent continued, “This was a chance to demonstrate the ability of their technology to the world.

“A chance to reassure their own people that China is superior. A chance to say 'don't worry, we've got it; if anyone is going to solve this global mystery, we will'.

“They haven't managed to,” Bunkall pointed out in an opinion piece on the UK channel's website.

Bunkall noted that on the weekend, information that the Chinese vessel Haixun 01 had picked up signals with frequencies consisted with that of an aircraft's black box, reached the world late.

It was only on Saturday evening that a tweet from the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency broke the news. Reporters aboard the ship had pictures showing Chinese sailors listening to the pulse signals which had come at 37.5 kHz - the same emitted by black boxes.

But a further probe showed that the Chinese ship had picked up two signals ― first on Friday and then again the next day.

“The news took all of us by surprise,” Bunkall said.

Over the weekend, news reports on CNN appeared to raise a similar question ― why did the Chinese hold on to the information?

According to one report, it could have been standard Chinese protocol for the sailors to report back to Beijing before the news could get disseminated back to ground experts operating in Australia.

In another report, it was suggested that language barriers could be faulted for the supposed breakdown in communication.

In a Sunday press conference, Houston was reportedly asked if he was disappointed that the Chinese had not directly informed him of the latest discovery.

According to a New York Times report, Houston said: “With journalists travelling on ships and airplanes, information will come out which basically has to be responded to. I accept the reality of that.”

But Bunkall said that it would have been the obvious thing to do for any search team out on the hunt now to inform Australia of any discovery.

“The Chinese had gone rogue,” he said. “But I should have given Angus Houston the benefit of the doubt. He has been extremely impressive since taking control of the situation and I think he knew exactly what he was going on over the weekend.”

The Chinese have been highly critical of Malaysia since news of MH370's disappearance hit headlines across the globe.

Among others, they have alleged that Malaysian authorities are covering-up mistakes made in the early days of MH370's disappearance to avoid perceptions of bungled investigations.

On one recent weekend, a group of irate Chinese families flew to Malaysia to demand answers and even staged a protest outside a hotel that Malaysia Airlines had booked for them.

During the protest, they called Malaysian authorities murderers and vowed never to forgive them for the loss of their loved ones.

Bunkall noted that the Chinese made up the majority of flight MH370. Of the 239 people on board, 153 were Chinese nationals.

“Clearly Beijing has a right to play a major role in the search,” he said.

But the correspondent added that operating separately from others in the search “isn't helpful”.

“It might be a race to find the black box but it isn't a competition,” he said.