On 18 February 1927, Stewart and the destroyer Paul Jones left Manila to search for the Elkton, a US merchant ship that had gone missing after leaving Iloilo on 9 February bound for New York with a cargo of sugar and coconut oil. The search, which was joined by the destroyers William B. Preston and Sicard on 20 February, was abandoned on 24 February, with nothing being found. Stewart was at Shanghai on 24 March 1927 when National Revolutionary Army troops attacked foreigners in the Nanking incident. For the next few months, the destroyer remained on the Yangtze, being based at Wuhu, Nanking, Shanghai, and Chenglin. On 27 March Stewart was on the way to Wuhu, when she was fired on, wounding three crewmen. Stewart was in collision with the merchant ship SS Luen Ho while on passage down the Yangtze on 5 November 1927, with the destroyer suffering a dented side. She remained in Chinese waters until 14 January 1928.
