The Battle of Liaoluo Bay (Chinese: 料羅灣海戰; pinyin: Liàoluó Wān Hǎizhàn) took place in 1633 off the coast of Fujian, China; involving the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Chinese Ming dynasty's navies. The battle was fought at the crescent-shaped Liaoluo Bay that forms the southern coast of the island of Kinmen. A Dutch fleet under Admiral Hans Putmans was attempting to control shipping in the Taiwan Strait, while the southern Fujian sea traffic and trade was protected by a fleet under Brigadier General Zheng Zhilong. This was the largest naval encounter between Chinese and European forces before the Opium Wars two hundred years later.

The Ming dynasty of the 17th century had relaxed its age old practice of banning maritime trade, allowing the Chinese coast to bustle with commercial activity. The Ming navy, however, had been poorly maintained and ineffectual, such that pirates had practical control of this trade. The pirate leader Zheng Zhilong in particular dominated the Fujian coast, his ships decked with European cannons and mercenaries from Japan to Africa. The Ming court, in its decline, recruited Zheng Zhilong in 1628 rather than to try and destroy him. Although the more piratical elements of his fleet deserted him after he surrendered to the Ming, Zheng's new status as a Ming admiral allowed him to go after his former lieutenants. He was aided in this anti-pirate campaign by the Dutch under the governor of Formosa (Taiwan), Hans Putmans.

The Dutch had been trying to gain permission to trade freely in China, without much success. In 1622 they established a position on the Pescadores, but were militarily defeated by the Ming in a war lasting from 1623 to 1624, and this forced the Dutch to withdraw from the Pescadores and establish themselves on Taiwan instead. Zheng Zhilong had promised to lobby on behalf of the Dutch if they in turn helped defeat his former subordinate Li Kuiqi (李魁奇); however, when this was accomplished in February 1630, Putmans received no guarantees about trade. Unbeknownst to Putmans, Zheng Zhilong had not been able to fulfill his promise because he then served a new Governor of Fujian, Zou Weilian [zh], who was hostile to the Dutch. Putmans believed that Zheng Zhilong had turned back on his promises, and decided that the Chinese bureaucracy would respond better to violence since he saw that pirates like Zheng Zhilong were recruited into officialdom. As Zheng Zhilong was preparing to attack the pirates Liu Xiang [zh] and Li Guozhu (李國助), Putmans attacked Zheng's base in Amoy by surprise on 7 July 1633.

Zheng Zhilong had adapted European technology throughout his maritime career, decking his ships with European cannons and mercenaries, and in 1633 he had built a new fleet of 30 ships according to European designs: whereas most Chinese junks held at most eight smaller cannons, Zheng's new ships had two reinforced gundecks that could hold up to thirty-six large guns, shooting out of Western-inspired gunports. According to a Dutch account, these "large, beautiful war junks were equipped with large cannons, some of them having more than our own warships." Putmans would later write about these ships in admiration: "Never before in this land so far as anyone can remember, has anyone seen a fleet like this, with such beautiful, huge, well-armed junks."

However, the new fleet was not given a chance to prove its worth, for it offered no resistance against the Dutch as they sailed around Gulang Island into the harbour of Amoy, thinking they were friendly. The Dutch fired at the Chinese fleet without warning. The ships had not been crewed yet and were filled with workers, who jumped ship. As soon as it was apparent that the Chinese would offer no retaliation, Putmans ordered his men to burn the ships to save powder. Three large junks escaped being burned or hacked to pieces and the Dutch suffered only one casualty — a sailor who had died setting a fire.

This time the 'red-haired ghosts' [Dutch] attacked Xiamen and, except Zhilong’s ships, the official ships were burned, with only five ships surviving.

— Zeng Ying (d. 1651)

Following the destruction of Zheng Zhilong's fleet, the Dutch roamed the seas with impunity, pillaging villages and capturing vessels. The pirates Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu joined Putmans, and for a time it seemed the Dutch were becoming the head of a new pirate coalition that operated off the coast of China, with at least 41 pirate junks and 450 Chinese soldiers. Putmans hoped these piratical activities would force China to agree to his demands for free trade, but they had the opposite effect; Putmans's actions had united the political enemies Zheng Zhilong and Zou Weilian together. Planning a counterattack, Zheng rebuilt his fleet as Zou gathered commanders from all over the Fujian coast. Zheng also recruited locals willing to join by rewarding each volunteer with two pieces of silver. If the battle lasted longer than expected, the reward would be increased to five. Zheng put the locals on 100 small fire boats, manned by 16 people each. If a boat set fire to one Dutch ship, they would be rewarded with 200 pieces of silver. If they presented a Dutch head, they would be rewarded with 50. Zheng Zhilong bided his time building his fleet even as the Dutch gathered strength from the pirates joining them, and he forestalled the Dutch by impersonating Chinese officials offering fake promises of free trade. In this way he also learned of the Dutch plans from their replies. His stalling bore fruit, as the typhoon season brought gales that hit the Dutch fleet, incapacitating four of its ships. In October 1633, now ready to strike, Zheng Zhilong sent a derogatory message to Putmans: "How can a dog be suffered to lay his head on the pillow of the emperor's resting place?" and brought his fleet to the Dutch anchorage at Liaoluo Bay.