A Vietnamese cargo ship that sank in a heavily disputed section of the South China Sea on Saturday was part of island-building projects to assert Vietnamese sovereignty against Chinese claims in the area, according to a Vietnamese official with knowledge of the effort, as rescuers searched for 15 sailors who were still missing.
The vessel, the Khoi Nguyen 18, was carrying 62 Vietnamese sailors when it began taking on water before sinking near the Spratly Islands, a cluster of over 100 small reefs and other land formations in the South China Sea where numerous countries have competing claims of sovereignty.
A distress signal from a survivors in a raft was first spotted by a Chinese rescue vessel in the area on Saturday evening, prompting a search and rescue operation that has so far taken in 47 survivors, Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday. The Vietnamese authorities have thanked their Chinese counterparts for acting quickly. Rescuers from the two countries and the Philippines are still searching for the others.
Accounts from China and Vietnam both place the location of the ship’s sinking between Fiery Cross Reef, which is controlled by China, and Discovery Great Reef, which is controlled by Vietnam.
The reefs are part of the Spratly Islands, which, along with the Paracel Islands, have for years been the site of intense competition between China and Vietnam. Both countries seek to assert their ownership by reclaiming vast tracts of land around uninhabited islets and reefs, and building military facilities on top of them.
The Khoi Nguyen 18 had been working on one such project when it sank, a Vietnamese official with direct knowledge of the matter told The New York Times. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Vietnamese authorities have publicly attributed the sinking to bad weather, but have not said where the ship was headed or what kind of cargo it was transporting.
A U.N. resolution governing maritime safety — of which Vietnam is a signatory — states that all large cargo ships must have their automatic identification system, or AIS, transponder on at all times. However, tracking data showed that the Vietnam-flagged ship has not transmitted location data for months. The ship was built in 2017, is about 230 feet long and has a total carrying capacity of about 1,900 metric tons.
The official said that the ship had been shuttling regularly between Cam Ranh, where the Vietnamese navy has a major port, to the Spratly Islands.
The registered owner of the ship is the Khoi Nguyen Trading, Import-Export and Transportation Company, according to Vietnamese government data. Reached on the phone, a representative for the company, who did not give his full name, said that the ship had been deployed to a high-priority project in the Spratlys being overseen by the Dacinco Construction Investment Company, which has been tied to island-building in the area.
Dacinco, which is based in Da Nang, Vietnam, has been purchasing cutter section dredgers from Royal IHC, a Dutch shipbuilding company, since 2022. These are specialized vessels that can suction up sand from the seabed, making them effective for land reclamation projects.
Calls to Dacinco went unanswered.
“These dredgers have been extensively used in the reclamation of Namyit Island, Pearson Reef and Barque Canada Reef, significantly enhancing Vietnam’s efficiency,” SCSPI, a Beijing-based maritime affairs think tank, said last year.
In June 2024, Vietnamese state media reported that a Dacinco worker was injured on a site on Barque Canada Reef, one of the formations comprising the Spratlys that Vietnam has been building out.
The company has also been actively recruiting workers for these projects on social media, where its job listings call for crane operators and truck drivers for “offshore construction projects” in the Spratlys.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both China and Vietnam have repeatedly protested the other’s island-building projects over the years, while efforts by U.S. officials to cool the expansionary fervor have been unsuccessful.
Last year, as Vietnam ramped up its projects in the Spratlys, where China had previously reclaimed 3,200 acres of land over a period of about three years, China’s Foreign Ministry criticized what it called an “illegal occupation.” Vietnam has leveled similar criticisms at China, which has lately focused its efforts on the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam claims in their entirety.
But these tensions were nowhere to be seen over the weekend, as the search for the missing crew members dragged on.
On Sunday, Pham Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, thanked Chinese rescuers for their efforts.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the Chinese authorities for their swift assistance to Vietnam in the search and rescue efforts,” she said. “And we hope that both sides will continue to cooperate closely to find the remaining people.”
Berry Wang contributed reporting.
