China's use of satellites and ships and aircraft equipped with high tech gear to search for the still missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 is a source of pride for the Chinese nation.

But partnering this pride is a downside that has Chinese puzzled. China's first manned deep-sea submersible, the Jiaolong, is not being used in the search for the missing aircraft carrying 153 Chinese citizens now focused off the western coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean.

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The Jiaolong carries advanced sonar equipment and is equipped with two mechanical arms that can lift some 220 pounds. It is a deep-sea research submersible that can go to a depth of over 7,000 meters.

It has the greatest depth range of any manned research vehicle in the world.  Jiaolong is the only manned submersible to have dived deeper than the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960 and the Deepsea Challenger in 2012.

With these capabilities, Jiaolong could prove an invaluable partner to the American submersible now leading the underwater search for MH-370.

But Chinese experts said Jiaolong isn't doing this because its mother ship is unreliable and prone to breaking down. They said the Jiaolong's mother ship, the Facing the Red Sun No. 9 built in1978, is unreliable and suffers from recurring engine problems. 

Cui Weicheng, deputy general designer of the Jiaolong, had expressed his frustration over the fact that the vehicle is not being utilized in a mission as important as the search for the missing plane.

He thinks that the Chinese government's hesitation to deploy the Jiaolong may be due to the many repairs it has undergone.

As a result of the mother ship's limitations, China didn't offer that Jiaolong join the underwater search. Instead, the lead role has been taken by the US-built robot submersible, Bluefin-21.

The wreckage of MH-370 is believed to lie 2.8 miles beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean, well within the Jiaolong's diving depth.

The embarrassing absence of China's most advanced submersible has been the subject of both derision and outrage among Chinese netizens, who are venting their fury on Weibo and other social networking sites.