Editorial: Indonesia May Sink Chinese Vessels - Jokowi Adviser

By Prashanth Parameswaran

An adviser to Indonesia’s president says Jakarta may sink Chinese vessels caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters.

Indonesia may consider sinking Chinese vessels that were caught illegally fishing in Indonesian waters, a foreign policy adviser to Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said Wednesday.

“We sank Vietnamese boats last week…maybe we will sink Chinese boats after that also,” Rizal Sukma, concurrently executive director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Jakarta, told an audience during a book launch at the Indonesian embassy in Washington, D.C.

Rizal was referring to Indonesia’s decision to orchestrate a highly-public sinking of three empty Vietnamese vessels last Friday to deter illegal fishing, a practice that costs the country billions of dollars in lost revenue each year. The seizure of 22 Chinese fishing boats in Indonesian waters on Sunday has raised questions about whether the Jokowi administration will risk angering Beijing by sinking them as well. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat