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Is PLA’s response to Dutch warship in South China Sea ‘putting down a marker’ for future?

Chinese military has claimed for the first time that it used ‘electronic countermeasures’ when the frigate entered disputed waters

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The Dutch frigate De Ruyter was involved in the confrontation near the contested Paracel Islands. Photo: AFP
Albee Zhangin Shanghai
China’s claim it had used “electronic interference” during a confrontation with a Dutch warship in the disputed waters of the South China Sea might signal growing confidence in its capabilities in this area, analysts said.
The PLA’s Southern Theatre Command, which oversees the South China Sea, accused the frigate De Ruyter of “illegally entering” waters near the Paracel Islands on Wednesday and repeatedly sending a helicopter into Chinese airspace.

Chinese air and naval forces had issued verbal warnings as well as using unspecified electronic “countermeasures” to “drive the aircraft away”, the People’s Liberation Army command said.

China has never mentioned “electronic interference” in previous statements about encounters with US and other foreign warships or planes in the South China Sea.

Fu Qianshao, a former air force pilot turned military analyst, said this was a “very serious form of warning” but “of course, not the most serious”.

He added: “This can involve transmitting electromagnetic signals to disrupt an adversary’s communications, radar or sensors – either through broad-spectrum barrage jamming or by targeting specific frequencies and wavelengths.”

The Dutch navy said on Thursday that the De Ruyter “had not been in [anyone’s] territorial waters” and would continue along its planned route “sailing in waters where free movement is permitted”.

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