The bottom line is that China has the money, and nobody wants to mess with that. They just want some of it.

Yeah it's as simple as that. People will say 'oh, well, that's the real world' - but that's admitting to appeasing totalitarianism for money. Hope they're ok with having that as their epitaph.

Meanwhile:

News.com: There are fears a mass incursion of Beijing’s secretive ‘Maritime Militia’ into a South China Sea reef may lead to the construction of yet another artificial island fortress.

Philippines senator Risa Hontiveros: “China is gaslighting us. China is making it appear as if we are hallucinating. We are tired of their attempts to twist the truth for the sake of advancing their self-interests."

It's interesting with the fishermen militia. There have been a lot of incidents involving Chinese fishermen in the last few years. I'm not a war historian so i don't know if that's a normal battle tactic or a new thing China has invented?