But China has been quite vociferous in their denial of Vietnamese activity. The maritime militia routinely swarms Vietnamese fishing ships. The Coast Guard routinely patrols Vietnamese oil rigs.

I'm disappointed in WarOnTheRocks for this opinion piece. He doesn't even explore what is the situation. He merely informs you what to believe, which just so conveniently tracks with his assertion.

It is curious that the Chinese haven't chosen Vietnamese atoll-building as their hill to die on, but it's just curious. Vietnam has negotiated with what I'll call newChina to settle boundaries. So calling it the dog that hasn't barked ignores Vietnam's own SCS history and chooses to overlay Filipino history onto Vietnam.

Finally, and this is the same problem casual observers fall into with Putin/Ukraine- it projects the author's rationality onto another rational actor and demands why haven't you acted in accordance with my beliefs? Reasonable minds do differ, it's not illegal.