The risk of a clash in the South China Sea lies with non-military ships, Singapore’s defense minister said, as China deploys more heavily armed coast guard vessels in the disputed waters.
Singapore has joined other nations in the region and the U.S. in warning the reliance on fishing boats and coast guards to assert territorial claims in the South China Sea raises the prospect of an incident. China has used its so-called white hull fleet to chase and shoo ships including fishing boats from other countries away from the reefs it claims.

A practical concern for nations whose ships travel through the area — it’s a key shipping lane that carries as much as $5 trillion in trade a year — is how to develop processes to defuse incidents as they occur, Ng Eng Hen told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian and U.S. defense ministers in Hawaii.
“It may have, in fact, very little to do with military ships” given an agreed code in place for navies, he said. “But you may have incidents arising from fishing, you may have incidents arising from white ships,” Ng said. “Whatever color ships they are, they can precipitate incidents.”

Singapore is not a claimant in the South China Sea, and Ng said China is “not a threat to us.” Still, it has called for a reduction in tensions and for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take a more united approach to resolving the disputes. The South China Sea has become a flashpoint for the broader tussle between China and the U.S. for influence in the western Pacific as President Xi Jinping seeks to build his country into a regional power.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-02/fishermen-coast-guards-worry-singapore-most-in-south-china-sea