COLD WAR II: Xi’s South China Sea ‘fishermen’ risk hooking US into conflict.

Tensions are also rising to the west, around the Paracel Islands. Two days before Wang’s comments, a Chinese vessel rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near Discovery Reef in the Paracels, according to Hanoi. The Paracels are home to overlapping claims by Vietnam, China and Taiwan. The five fishermen on the Vietnamese boat were eventually rescued, Hanoi said.

In early March, Philippine media reported that China had effectively asserted control over sandbars near the Philippine-administered Thitu Island, in the Spratlys. The sandbars, which are adjacent to bountiful fish stocks, had previously been frequented by Philippine fishing boats, which are now being turned away by what are effectively Chinese paramilitary boats posing as fishing vessels.

Worries in the Philippines over the fate of Thitu are growing. The mayor of the town of Kalayaan, which is responsible for Thitu told local media he personally witnessed a Chinese helicopter fly over the island before returning to Subi Reef in late January. In 2012, China dislodged the Philippines from Subi Reef, just 24 km away, subsequently militarizing it and building a runway there.

Filipino defense officials “are naturally wary of the Chinese fishing vessels around Pag-asa Island,” said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea in Manila. “The possibility that China might seize control of the island through unarmed militiamen has been on their minds.”

Those Chinese “fishing vessels” are engaging in acts of war, despite not flying navy colors, which fits the legal definition of terrorism.