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Indonesia Fights Growing Pressure from China to Let it Use Use Disputed
Waters

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China is raising pressure on Indonesia over rights to
   use a contested tract of sea and challenging the militarily weaker
   Southeast Asian country to consider options from friendly dialogue to
   strong protests.
   Indonesia spotted as many as 63 "trespassing" Chinese vessels in 30
   locations within its maritime exclusive economic zone last month, the
   research platform East Asia Forum says in a January 15 report. Another
   spate followed in early January. Chinese coast guard vessels had
   escorted some, media reports from Jakarta say.
   Though not a first between the two big Asian countries, this escalation
   near Indonesia's Natuna Islands raises the specter of a new flash point
   in a normally quiet part of the broader, heavily disputed South China
   Sea.

   "On the Indonesian side, I think that there's a growing sense at the
   security level that China is becoming a more problematic actor," said
   Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and
   international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.
   China may hope Indonesia will bargain over the tract of sea that's near
   the 272 tiny Natuna islands northwest of Borneo, possibly in exchange
   for economic aid, Asia scholars say.
   But if Indonesia fears talks would validate China's claim, it might
   instead make diplomatic protests instead or get help from powerful
   Western-allied countries that already resent China's maritime
   expansion.

   "I think you'll see a lot more of China pushing not just on us but on
   Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and others through incursions and get us
   to eventually acknowledge their right to a negotiation, and I think
   this is why we're still very much resisting the notion that we should
   come and talk to the Chinese about this," said Evan Laksamana, senior
   researcher for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think
   tank in Jakarta.

   "And I think China also doesn't want to make (the coordinates of its
   claim) that clear yet, so that's why these are kind of gradual,
   low-level incursions, that of course I think will escalate if Indonesia
   doesn't respond strongly and forcefully and provide actual diplomatic
   protest notes so that under international law we always challenge
   China's incursions," Laksamana said.

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