{"id":16734,"date":"2026-05-27T18:10:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/16734\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:10:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:10:04","slug":"china-accuses-dutch-warship-of-provocative-acts-in-south-china-sea-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/16734\/","title":{"rendered":"China accuses Dutch warship of \u2018provocative acts\u2019 in South China Sea \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The confrontation unfolded near the Paracel Islands, a <a href=\"https:\/\/ipj.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq\/index.php\/political\/article\/view\/518\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">strategically important<\/a> archipelago of some 130 islands that Beijing seized from Vietnam in the 1970s and now controls through a network of military outposts and surveillance capabilities. China strictly controls travel to the region, and individual or commercial vessels are not allowed in the islands&#8217; territorial waters.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch Defense Ministry disputed Beijing\u2019s account, telling POLITICO that HNLMS De Ruyter was operating \u201cin accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the frigate is sailing through the South China Sea and making port calls across the region \u201cto strengthen diplomatic, security and economic ties\u201d with partner countries.<\/p>\n<p> It declined to comment further on \u201coperational details.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incident follows another encounter last week near the Philippines, when the Dutch frigate\u2019s commander said a Chinese military helicopter <a href=\"https:\/\/mb.com.ph\/2026\/05\/22\/dutch-frigate-reports-brief-encounter-with-chinese-helicopter-in-wps-during-manila-port-visit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">briefly approached<\/a> the vessel before peeling away. \u201cThey asked who we were and we replied, and that was enough,\u201d Commander Rodger de Wit told a local newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands has become <a href=\"https:\/\/ceias.eu\/bolstering-european-naval-presence-in-the-indo-pacific-whats-the-state-of-play\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">increasingly active<\/a> in the Indo-Pacific in recent years, sending warships through the South China Sea as part of a broader push to deepen security ties in the region. In 2021, the frigate HNLMS Evertsen <a href=\"https:\/\/maritime-executive.com\/article\/uk-s-carrier-strike-group-exercises-in-south-china-sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sailed<\/a> through the region alongside the British carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth and in 2024, HNLMS Tromp <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/branches\/navy\/2024-05-23\/navy-dutch-south-china-sea-13947615.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">held exercises <\/a>with U.S. Navy ships in the contested waters.<\/p>\n<p>China claims most of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/pcacases.com\/web\/sendAttach\/1801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">arbitration ruling<\/a> in The Hague finding Beijing\u2019s sweeping claims had no legal basis under international law \u2014 a decision China <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/jul\/12\/philippines-wins-south-china-sea-case-against-china\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rejects<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The confrontation unfolded near the Paracel Islands, a strategically important archipelago of some 130 islands that Beijing seized&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13355,87,2476,13356,6,4999,13357,794,13358,216,739,13359],"class_list":["post-16734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-airspace","tag-china","tag-military","tag-naval-vessels","tag-netherlands","tag-philippines","tag-ports","tag-security","tag-surveillance","tag-the-netherlands","tag-united-states","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}