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nder President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Indonesia has taken a series of actions seen as bold moves against China’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea (SCS).

The latest was the renaming of SCS waters that lie within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) north of the Natuna Islands in Riau Islands province as the “North Natuna Sea,” which quickly triggered a response from Beijing.

The North Natuna Sea has been claimed by China under its ambiguous nine-dash line maritime boundary.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said the renaming “makes no sense at all.”

During a regular press conference in Beijing, Geng stressed that the name South China Sea refers to a clear geographical area with an internationally recognized standard name.

“The so-called change of name is not conducive to the efforts for the international standardization of place names,” Geng said on Friday as quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry website. “We hope the relevant country can work with China for the shared goal and jointly uphold the current hard-won secure situation in the South China Sea,” Geng said.

The director general of fisheries and maritime resources surveillance (PSDKP) at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Eko Djalmo Asmadi, said the new map would particularly help them with their mission to eradicate illegal fishing.

“The map provides legal certainty for law enforcers as it will also ease coordination [with neighboring countries] since we know the boundaries of each other’s territory,” Eko told The Jakarta Post.

The new map would assert more legitimacy for authorities to take action against foreign fishermen who crossed Indonesia’s territory to Natuna waters for poaching, now that the EEZ waters has been named the North Natuna Sea, he said.

“Our sovereignty over EEZ waters north of Natuna is now more certain,” Eko added.

Since January, authorities from the PSDKP and the Indonesian Navy have apprehended at least 136 Vietnamese-flagged vessels and two Malaysian-flagged vessels caught for illegal fishing in Natuna waters, Eko said.

The change of name was made on the updated map of Indonesia published by the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister on Friday, a move that analysts have called Indonesia’s rebuttal of China’s claim to the resource-rich waters of Natuna.

The deputy coordinating maritime minister for maritime sovereignty, Arif Havas Oegroseno, said the updated map would provide legal certainty, especially in border areas between Indonesia and other countries that have been previously designated by treaty.

Those are the maritime boundary in the Singapore Strait that was ratified by Indonesia and Singapore in December last year, as well as Indonesia’s and the Philippines’ overlapping EEZs in the Celebes Sea separated as the Sulawesi and Mindanao seas.

The updated map also outlined a simplification of the maritime boundary in the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia, which is also near Singapore, aiming to help Indonesian authorities conduct patrols in the area, he said.

“The Indonesian Navy and its Malaysian counterpart have created a special arrangement to conduct coordinated patrols and they have also asked Singapore to join in. The [coordinated] patrols have been in force,” Havas said.