I actually visited the Paracel Islands while war was being fought in Viet Nam. Small place. Has a French Foreign Legion cemetery, quite small. Old land records stored at Hue had Vietnamese occupation, and Viet claims to the Paracels going back hundreds of years. The Chinese claim usually derives from a very early map when a Chinese boat captain claimed the whole of the South China Sea for China. Peking’s claim to the Paracels is bogus. Period.
The few times Vietnam and China have fought, Red China came out pretty bloodied.
For all the bluster of the Chicoms, they are still frightened of the Japanese, and wary of the Vietnamese. And would be scared of us, too, if they didn't own Joe Biden.