Early last month, more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels were sighted anchored off the Whitsun Reef, which falls within Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands. Beijing says the ships are sheltering from bad weather, and that they are not militia vessels. “Satellite imagery made available in the public domain shows the Chinese boats have been entering and exiting the area at will, virtually unobstructed, since late last year,” said Dr Collin Koh, a Research Fellow at Singapore’s RSIS. It was clear that at least some of the crew were maritime militia, he added.