China is hungry - the Chinese will eat: anything with four legs, except furniture; anything that swims, excerpt a boat, anything that flies, except a plane.
Picking on Ecuador is par for them - the defenseless are fair game, the engendered are tasty and profitable - so why spare that rich unprotected resource?
Ecuador has a small navy. They can ram or threaten to ram those boats Board them and take their catch. It’s a long way from China if they wan to retaliate.