Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments about U.S. interests in the resolution of competing claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea caused Beijing to lash out at what it perceived as unwarranted U.S. intervention in a matter outside its concern. China maintains extravagant claims over virtually the entire body of water. As the fracas over the newly assertive U.S. position unfolded, many analysts saw the influence of Vietnam on the U.S. calculus. It is true that the Vietnamese have been leading the charge in resisting Beijing’s effort to turn the South China Sea into a “Chinese lake,” and the fact they were hosting the regional forum where this conflict burst into the open only fueled speculation that they had encouraged the previously soft-on-China Obama administration to enter this convoluted and contentious fray.

But recent reporting on an incident that took place in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) suggests that Vietnam is not the only Southeast Asian country that has been prevailing upon the U.S. to engage more sharply on this highly sensitive issue. The August 3 edition of the Mainichi Daily News, a Japanese newspaper, reported on a June 23 confrontation over a fleet of 10 Chinese fishing vessels operating without permission in Indonesia’s EEZ. A stand-off over the Indonesian navy’s seizure of a Chinese fishing boat almost got out of control when a Chinese “fishery management vessel” – which was actually a repurposed heavy gunboat – threatened to fire on the Indonesian navy patrol boat. According to the article, the fishery management vessel pointed its large-caliber machine gun at the carbon-hulled Indonesian craft, at which point the outgunned patrol boat released the errant Chinese trawler. The article says that a similar episode occurred in May, with the same large Chinese warship having likewise successfully threatened an Indonesian naval patrol that was detaining an illegal Chinese fishing boat.