John F Copper, a professor of international studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, does not doubt that the men are given concrete assignments by the Chinese government, or at least are encouraged in their actions.
"There is little chance they are fishing in disputed waters or where they may provoke Japan, South Korea or the Philippines on their own," Copper said, adding that China wished to display its economic and military clout, especially to Japan, while the issues of sea lanes and oil may be at play as well.
"Also, making claims to territory conforms with the growth of Chinese nationalism, which the PLA has been and is successfully using to its advantage."
Lai I-chung, a researcher at the Taiwan Thinktank, agreed that the fishermen clearly had military or paramilitary connections. He listed several indicators.
"Every Chinese fishing boat needs to report to authorities where it's about to go before sailing out to sea," Lai said. According to him, this explains why vessels belonging to the PLA Navy or other official boats were able to appear at the scene suspiciously quickly in a number of incidents.
