Thursday, November 09, 2017

The Spirit is Willing

Indonesia has the size and distance from China to use force to stop Chinese-sanctioned and -protected fish poaching in Indonesian waters, but Indonesia is poor enough that its small navy is hampered in shielding their waters from persistent Chinese poaching.

Indonesia is not intimidated by superior Chinese power:

Indonesia has made it clear that it will not tolerate poachers, even heavily armed ones, attempting to take fish from Indonesian waters. Because of the continued poaching threat from China Indonesia has delayed the planned retirement of its fifty year old Yani class frigates. ...

Indonesia is one of the few nations to use force to keep the aggressive Chinese poachers away. Since 2014 Indonesia has been seizing and destroying foreign fishing boats. Some 200 of these fishing boats have been destroyed, usually by burning them at sea or using explosives or gunfire to sink them. Indonesia justifies this by pointing out that this poaching costs Indonesia over $2 billion a year and Chinese poachers continue to show up, often escorted by Chinese warships disguised as coast guard vessels.

But Indonesian aero-naval power is weak.

Indonesia could use help to keep a stronger shield at sea in place to push back against Chinese poaching and excessive territorial claims in the South China Sea.