Chinese fishing vessels manned by armed soldiers arrive in contested islands By Share A flotilla of 220 Chinese fishing vessels has arrived at the Whitsun Reef, near the western Philippines province of Palawan in the South China Sea. Part of the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha archipelago, the Whitsun Reef lies within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. But China has been aggressive in pressing its own claims to the Spratly Islands and other contested islands in the South China Sea, despite a 2016 United Nations tribunal ruling dismissing most of its territorial...