JAKARTA, Indonesia — China’s Coast Guard rammed one of the country’s fishing boats to pry it free from the Indonesian authorities who had seized it over the weekend, angering the Indonesian government and heightening yet another diplomatic dispute over the South China Sea.

The boat was stopped for fishing illegally in Indonesia’s waters and was being towed to port when the Chinese took it back, leaving its crew in the hands of Indonesia. Jakarta reacted with uncharacteristic fury, summoning the Chinese ambassador to a meeting on Monday.

The high-seas confrontation also indicated that Indonesia might be toughening its stance toward China in the region.

It began at 10 p.m. on Saturday when a special task force vessel operated by the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries caught a Chinese fishing boat within Indonesia’s maritime 200-mile exclusive economic zone, off the Natuna Islands northwest of Borneo, said Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry.