A cargo vessel linked to Việt Nam’s island-building campaign has gone down in contested waters.
The Latest: On July 26, BBC News Tiếng Việt, citing China’s Global Times, reported that a cargo ship named Khôi Nguyên 18 sank in the South China Sea.
- The vessel was carrying 62 Vietnamese nationals, and the first distress signal was recorded on the evening of July 25.
- According to both the Vietnamese and Chinese governments, the ship went down in the Spratly Islands, between Fiery Cross Reef, which is controlled by China, and Discovery Great Reef, which is controlled by Việt Nam.
The Details: As of the morning of July 28, Việt Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that China had rescued 48 of the 62 people on board and handed them over to the Vietnamese side.
- Fourteen individuals remain missing.
Vietnamese authorities have not disclosed the destination or cargo of the Khôi Nguyên 18, stating only that the vessel sank while “operating in severe weather conditions in the South China Sea.”
- The Vietnamese government records identify the registered owner of the vessel as the Khôi Nguyên Trading, Import-Export, and Transportation Company.
On July 27, a Vietnamese official familiar with the South China Sea situation told The New York Times that, before it sank, the Khôi Nguyên 18 regularly traveled between Cam Ranh in Khánh Hòa Province—home to a major Vietnamese naval port—and the Spratly Islands and may have been involved in a land reclamation project.
- The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Further interviews conducted by The New York Times indicated that the vessel had been assigned to a “high-priority project” in the Spratly Islands supervised by Dacinco Construction Investment Company, a firm linked to island-building activities in the region.
- When Luật Khoa Magazine contacted Khôi Nguyên on the morning of July 28 seeking further information, the representative who answered declined to comment but said the company was “busy with search-and-rescue operations.”
- Luật Khoa Magazine also contacted Dacinco by telephone. The company’s receptionist declined to answer questions, and Luật Khoa Magazine had not received a response to a follow-up email at the time of publication.
The Background: The area where the Khôi Nguyên 18 sank lies among reefs in the Spratly Islands, a region where Việt Nam and China are locked in an intense sovereignty dispute.
- In recent years, both countries have carried out large-scale land reclamation around small islands and uninhabited reefs, and they have built military facilities to reinforce their territorial claims.
According to a report published on May 8, 2026, by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, Việt Nam has accelerated its dredging and artificial-island construction in the Spratly Islands.
- As of May 2026, Việt Nam had created approximately 1,121 hectares of artificial land through reclamation.
AMTI stated that Việt Nam had continued reclaiming land at several smaller features since late 2025, after completing work at Barque Canada Reef earlier in that year.
- As a direct result of these efforts, Việt Nam now has 15 seaports in the Spratly Islands, 11 of which have been built since 2021.
Hoàng Nam wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on July 28, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights to the English translation.
