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Beijing’s decision to print the new map last year prompted protests from the Philippines and Vietnam, which also claim large parts of the South China Sea. India, which has a border dispute with China, also criticised Beijing’s move.
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The Crown Capital Management Jakarta International Relations: Indonesia Protested Over China Passports http://joscemadman.inube.com/blog/3191356/the-crown-capital-management-jakarta-international-relations-indonesia-protested-over-china-passports/
Indonesia has revealed that it protested to Beijing about China’s publication in its passports of its “nine-dash line” claim to almost the entire South China Sea
Beijing’s decision to print the new map last year prompted protests from the Philippines and Vietnam, which also claim large parts of the South China Sea. India, which has a border dispute with China, also criticised Beijing’s move.
Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia’s foreign minister, told the Financial Times in an interview that Indonesia lodged a protest with Beijing several weeks after the new passports were issued,
“We said that usage of that passport should not be inferred as being a recognition of that claim,” he said. “We exercised nice low key diplomacy but getting our point across.”
At the time that the dispute arose last year, Mr Natalegawa said China’s move was “disingenuous” and that Beijing was “testing the water to see its neighbours’ reactions”, according to the Jakarta Post.
But Indonesia made no public statement at the time about the fact that the nine-dash line cuts through its Exclusive Economic Zone in the gas-rich Natuna Sea, where international energy companies such as ExxonMobil and Total are operating.
Indonesia has long tried to play down its territorial dispute with Beijing for fear of upsetting relations with China, which is a key trade and investment partner.
“We believe that by doing quiet diplomacy we get a better result,” said Evi Fitriani, an international relations expert at the University of Indonesia. “So I'm quite surprised that the foreign minister admitted making this protest.”
Ristian Atriandi Supriyanto, a maritime security analyst at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Indonesia was reluctant to increase tensions with China for fear of inflaming public opinion and risking a damaging economic backlash from Beijing.
