First Battle of Tamao

The Battle of Tãmão was a naval battle in which the Ming Dynasty Imperial Navy defeated a Portuguese navy led by Simão de Andrade in 1521.

Causes
Simão de Andrade had been kidnapping Chinese children to sell in Malacca. and ignored Chinese sovereign authority at Tãmão, building a fort. The Chinese believed that the Portuguese roasted and ate the Chinese children they had kidnapped. The Chinese responded by blockading the Portuguese. The Portuguese would have starved if they had not run the blockade.

The Battle
During this period China's navy maintained around 50 ships. Simão de Andrade's fleet was defeated by the Chinese navy, which emboldened the Chinese to take further military action the following year, at the Second Battle of Tamao (1522) against Martim Afonso de Mello.

The Chinese were commanded by Wang Hong. The battle started in either April or May, and ended when the Portuguese fled to Malacca in October. Many Portuguese vessels were captured by Chinese forces. The Chinese killed and captured so many Portuguese that only three Portuguese ships survived the battle, out of the many ships and Chinese junks with which they attacked the Chinese. They managed to escape only because a strong wind came up and scattered the pursuing Chinese ships, enabling the Portuguese to escape to the open sea. For many years afterwards, the Chinese would kill every single Portuguese who attempted to land in China.