Column: Duty beyond dispute: maritime search and rescue in South China Sea

Crew members on Nanhai Jiu 115, a rescue vessel operated by the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of China's Ministry of Transport, pick up crew members of Vietnamese vessel KHOI NGUYEN 18 from a life raft in the waters adjacent to Yongshu Jiao in China's Nansha Qundao in the South China Sea on July 25, 2026. China has rescued 47 of the 62 crew members after a Vietnamese ship sank on Friday night while operating in unfavorable weather conditions in the South China Sea, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Monday. (Sansha Maritime Safety Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

by Ding Duo

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- On the night of July 24, a Vietnamese vessel, KHOI NGUYEN 18, sank in the South China Sea. The survivors drifted in life rafts with the prevailing currents toward the waters adjacent to Yongshu Jiao in China's Nansha Qundao.

Nanhai Jiu 115, a rescue vessel operated by the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of China's Ministry of Transport, first spotted suspected signals for help at sea. After finding a life raft carrying multiple people waving clothes for help, the rescue vessel approached the raft to carry out rescue operations.

As of early morning on Monday, Chinese vessels had rescued 47 crew members of the sunken ship. Multiple Chinese vessels, one rescue helicopter and several Vietnamese vessels are still carrying out search and rescue operations at the scene.

This latest incident is but one in a long series of emergency responses across the vast and heavily trafficked South China Sea. It illustrates, in concrete and unambiguous terms, what effective maritime search and rescue demands: rapid response grounded in clear legal frameworks and well-rehearsed emergency mechanisms, a humanitarian and public-service orientation that operates independently of any maritime disputes, and efficient coordination among multiple actors at different levels of authority. More significantly, it reaffirms China's indispensable role as a responsible major power and principal coastal state in fulfilling its international obligations, delivering essential public goods, and advancing functional maritime cooperation in these waters. Such tangible, life-saving efforts cannot be dismissed or distorted by selective narratives detached from operational reality.

The South China Sea serves as a critical artery of global commerce with three major international shipping lanes and approximately 27 regional feeder routes. Around half of the world's commercial vessels and one-third of global seaborne trade transit these waters annually. At the same time, the region is frequently exposed to severe weather, including tropical cyclones and monsoonal storms, as well as rapidly shifting sea conditions that can transform a routine voyage into a life-threatening emergency in a matter of hours. These factors make the dual task of safeguarding freedom of navigation and maintaining an effective search-and-rescue posture both demanding and perpetual. China has long regarded the preservation of navigational safety in these waters as a core national responsibility. Through concrete institutional steps, including the establishment of the Sansha Maritime Search and Rescue Sub-Center and the Nansha Maritime Search and Rescue Center, the forward deployment and optimization of professional rescue assets, and the gradual construction of an integrated air-sea emergency response system, China has systematically worked to provide public services and navigational security to vessels of neighboring littoral states as well as those of distant flags that rely on these sea lanes. What underpins this commitment is not rhetoric or constructed narratives, but sustained practical action that embodies the legal, public-interest, professional and coordinated character of modern maritime search and rescue.

A series of recent operations makes this pattern unmistakably clear. In January 2026, a foreign cargo vessel with 21 Filipino crew members went missing in the vicinity of Huangyan Dao. Chinese maritime authorities activated the search-and-rescue coordination mechanism without hesitation, swiftly deploying ships and aircraft to locate those in the water, successfully recovering 17 survivors, and subsequently transferring them to Philippine rescue teams that had arrived on scene. In November 2025, Chinese rescue forces carried out a demanding long-range aeromedical evacuation more than 400 nautical miles east of Yongxing Dao, transporting a seriously injured foreign crew member to shore-based medical facilities. It was an operation that demonstrated not only extended operational reach but also precise medical evacuation capabilities under challenging maritime conditions. In July of that same year, Chinese rescue personnel spent nearly four consecutive days battling a large fire aboard a foreign container ship near Nansha Qundao, an effort that preserved the vessel, saved all crew members, and prevented what could have been a major marine pollution incident. These operations across different quadrants of the South China Sea involved crews of various nationalities and responded to fundamentally different types of emergencies, demonstrating that China's provision of public goods at sea is routine, professional and wide-ranging. They rest squarely on the humanitarian principles and the duty to ensure navigational safety enshrined in international maritime law, and they deliver tangible, life-and-property-preserving benefits to ships and seafarers of all flags transiting the region.

It must, however, be candidly acknowledged that building a comprehensive, stable, and fully institutionalized regional search-and-rescue cooperation architecture remains very much a work in progress. While successful bilateral coordination does occur in specific incidents, overall cooperation among regional states still tends to follow an ad-hoc, case-by-case pattern rather than a structured and predictable framework. Regularized multilateral joint exercises, real-time information-sharing protocols, and unified on-scene coordination mechanisms all require considerably more development before they can be considered mature. The inherent complexity of South China Sea issues, layered as they are with territorial disputes, jurisdictional sensitivities, and broader geopolitical tensions, presents objective and formidable challenges to the establishment of highly integrated regional arrangements. This reality underscores a larger and more sobering point: statements and narratives that detach themselves from concrete operational practice, that overlook the actual and sustained contributions of the primary provider of public goods in these waters, and that seek to obscure shared non-traditional security needs through one-sided or politically motivated accounts, run directly counter to the fundamental goals of protecting navigational safety and upholding humanitarian values at sea. Enhancing maritime safety is not a zero-sum geopolitical contest. It is a shared interest that unites all regional countries. Focusing on practical, depoliticized cooperation is far more constructive. It is far more likely to save lives than trading in unfounded accusations or deliberate smears.

Looking ahead, deepening and broadening search-and-rescue cooperation in the South China Sea serves the shared and long-term interests of all parties. A realistic and pragmatic path forward builds on existing operational practice through parallel bilateral and multilateral steps, advanced incrementally and in good faith. First, there should be strengthened cooperation on information exchange, technical standards, and the sharing of best practices, combined with regular joint tabletop exercises and actual at-sea ship drills to measurably improve the effectiveness and interoperability of coordinated emergency responses. Second, regional states should expand exchanges and joint projects in professional training, search-and-rescue technology research and development, and equipment application, so that the overall regional capacity base is collectively raised rather than developed in isolated silos. Third, while fully respecting the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue and other relevant international legal instruments, coastal states could explore the joint development of operational guidelines or standard operating procedures specifically tailored to the unique conditions of these waters which are characterized by vast distances, congested shipping routes, and frequent severe weather, thereby laying a clearer and more predictable foundation for efficient multilateral collaboration when the next emergency inevitably arises.

Maritime search and rescue in the South China Sea is, at its core, a cross-border public service grounded in international law, driven by humanitarian imperatives, and realized through effective operational coordination. The sustained institutional capacity-building and proactive rescue operations conducted by Chinese maritime forces over many years constitute concrete and verifiable evidence of the serious fulfillment of international responsibilities and the practical safeguarding of regional maritime public safety.

From the current rescue operation for the crew of KHOI NGUYEN 18 to the series of successful cases recorded in recent years, the consistent underlying logic has been to prioritize the saving of lives and the security of navigation above all other considerations. Continuously advancing the institutionalization of search-and-rescue cooperation and improving the predictability, transparency, and coordination of actions among all stakeholders will raise the overall safety level of this vital global passageway. It will, in the process, also generate additional positive momentum for building regional mutual trust and for promoting enduring peace and stability in the South China Sea. Enditem

(Editor's note: The author is director of the Research Center for International and Regional Issues at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, based in Hainan Province, south China.)

This image captured on July 27, 2026 shows a rescued crew member of Vietnamese vessel KHOI NGUYEN 18 being transferred from a Chinese rescue helicopter to a Vietnamese vessel, above the waters adjacent to Yongshu Jiao in China's Nansha Qundao in the South China Sea. China has rescued 47 of the 62 crew members after a Vietnamese ship sank on Friday night while operating in unfavorable weather conditions in the South China Sea, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Monday. (Sansha Maritime Safety Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

This image captured on July 26, 2026 shows rescued crew members of Vietnamese vessel KHOI NGUYEN 18 being transferred from Nanhai Jiu 115, a rescue vessel operated by the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of China's Ministry of Transport, to a Vietnamese vessel, in the waters adjacent to Yongshu Jiao in China's Nansha Qundao in the South China Sea. China has rescued 47 of the 62 crew members after a Vietnamese ship sank on Friday night while operating in unfavorable weather conditions in the South China Sea, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Monday. (Sansha Maritime Safety Administration/Handout via Xinhua)