Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-says-it-has-no-overlapping-south-china-sea-claims-with-china-despite-2024-11-11/
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, today, was visiting Beijing and discussed agreements on disputed sea territory even though there still seems to be some confusion about which countries have exclusive rights to which areas. Previously, Indonesia has claimed that they have no overlapping claims with China to parts of the South China Sea while China has reportedly claimed around 90% of the sea reaching into multiple other countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones. These Chinese claims have been dismissed by most of the international and regional community as incorrect and illegitimate. Nevertheless, Indonesia signed an agreement with China that has intentions of boosting economic ties, but may be contradictory towards their previous statements and give China rights to previously exclusive claims of Indonesia.
This article is important because it shows the stretch of international relations at physical land borders. Economics, resources, trade and sea lanes become a murky subject when there aren’t official borders and countries are able to make claims that they can’t necessarily back up. This article shows the complex relationship of China and other east Asian countries that surround the South China Sea because they are important to each other because of their trading and protection value, but they have many disputes because of overlapping offshore lines that are hard to agree upon. I see this problem continuing for all countries involved until an international meeting is attended and claims are redrawn and discussed.
I expect China to ignore other countries’ claims to territorial waters and keep whatever areas they think they own and will be able to do this because of their military strength and the lack thereof of the other countries connected by the South China Sea. I expect Indonesia to approach this situation with soft power and attempt to create more agreements through diplomacy. This connects with what we are talking about in class because it relates to hard power versus soft power because China is using hard power through using their sea vessels to make sure their waters are protected and Indonesia is approaching this using soft power through an economic pathway and diplomacy.