Chinese Navy Drives Away Dutch Ship From South China Sea Islands
The Netherlands has become the latest Western government to openly challenge China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea after a tense military encounter involving a Dutch warship.
China said its military used electronic warfare measures to force the Dutch frigate HNLMS De Ruyter away after it entered waters near the disputed Paracel Islands.
The confrontation highlights growing international resistance to China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing asserts through its controversial “nine-dash line.”
The Chinese claim historic rights to nearly the entire South China Sea via a nine-dash line and sweeping baselines drawn around the Paracels in the west and the Spratly Islands in the east, among other maritime zones.
Chinese military spokesperson Zhai Shichen accused the Dutch vessel of violating “China's territorial sovereignty and maritime and air security,” claiming the ship launched multiple helicopter sorties and entered Chinese airspace.
“The Dutch side's actions…seriously undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea and could easily lead to misunderstanding and miscalculation,” Zhai said.
The 6,000-ton Dutch air defense frigate carries an NH90 helicopter designed for anti-submarine warfare and maritime operations.
“The frigate has not been in territorial waters” and “operates in accordance with international law,” Dutch navy spokesperson Marinka Hiraldo Vos-van Kooten said in an email to Newsweek.
“HNLMS De Ruyter continues sailing in waters where free movement is permitted,” the statement said, adding: “We are not providing further details for operational reasons.”
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague, adjudicating a case brought by the Philippines, ruled that many of China's claims violated the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty Beijing signed in 1982 and ratified in 1996.
Beijing has rejected the ruling, but the Netherlands is among several Western governments-including the United States-that support its findings.
While the U.S. Navy has repeatedly carried out freedom of navigation operations near the Paracel and Spratly Islands, this appeared to mark the first such Dutch maneuver in the Paracels.
The South China Sea remains one of the world's most contested waterways, with overlapping territorial claims involving Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China's claims also overlap with parts of Indonesia's exclusive economic zone.
China seized control of the Paracel Islands after a naval clash with Vietnam in the 1970s and has since spent years expanding military infrastructure on artificial islands across the region.
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South China Sea dispute map
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The De Ruyter deployed to the Indo-Pacific in April on a five-month mission focused on regional security cooperation. Along the way, it conducted joint exercises with India and Indonesia before entering the South China Sea.
As the ship arrived in Manila over the weekend, the Dutch embassy said the deployment reflected the Netherlands' commitment to “maritime security, freedom of navigation and deepening ties with partners in the region.”
Ship-tracking data showed the vessel departed Manila on Monday.
Dutch naval forces also encountered Chinese military units during operations in the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait in 2024 while enforcing U.N. sanctions against North Korea.
China's increasingly assertive posture in Asian waters is expected to dominate discussions at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's largest annual defense forum from May 29 to 31.
Pete Hegseth and Dutch defense chief Onno Eichelsheim are both scheduled to speak at the event.
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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 6:50 AM.