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.

1. The Crown Capital
Management Jakarta
International Relations:
Indonesia Protested Over
China Passports
http://joscemadman.inube.com/blog/3191356/the-crown

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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,

5. “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.”

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. “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.”

10. 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.