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How Indonesia is Setting Limits for China's Maritime Expansion in Asia

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Indonesia declined this month to negotiate with China
   over a tract of sea where Beijing says it should have usage rights.

   But Beijing isn't pressuring Jakarta like it does Malaysia, Taiwan, and
   Vietnam when they offend China's sovereignty claims.

   The populous Southeast Asian archipelago can snub China because of its
   international clout, and the approach has indirectly helped other
   countries resist Chinese influence in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer
   South China Sea that's prized for natural resources.

   Unlike smaller Asian nations, Indonesia with its 273 million people
   represents a military and political "middle power," a giant market and
   a core force in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
   It is a key country in the Islamic world extending into the Middle
   East, says Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia specialist with the Taiwan
   Strategy Research Association.

   "Indonesia is not really the type of country you can actually force to
   coercion as you can do in other cases," Cau says. "Indonesia is a very
   different case for a variety of reasons."

   Scholars say that confronting Indonesia's maritime claims could put
   tens of billions of dollars in Chinese trade at risk, and in the worst
   case, spark a backlash against ethnic Chinese people in Indonesia
   reminiscent of anti-China riots in 1998.

   Beijing and Jakarta dispute a swathe of the South China Sea north of
   Indonesia's outlying Natuna islands. Indonesia says there is no cause
   for dispute because its claim follows international maritime law.

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