Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T17:38:24.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Indonesia-China Relations: Coming Full Circle?

from INDONESIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2019

Dewi Fortuna Anwar
Affiliation:
Research Professor at the Research Center for Politics, Indonesian Institute of Sciences and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at The Habibie Center in Jakarta.
Get access

Summary

The bilateral relations between Indonesia and the People's Republic of China seem to have come full circle. The current state of relations between Jakarta and Beijing brings to mind the earlier period of close bilateral ties during the later years of President Sukarno's presidency until his fall in late 1965. Although President Soeharto had already normalized relations with China in 1990 — after freezing diplomatic ties in 1967 — bilateral relations between Indonesia and China only improved significantly after the fall of Soeharto in mid-1998. Successive Indonesian presidents since the onset of the Reformasi era have placed great importance in forging closer relations with China, an increasingly important economic powerhouse as well as a major regional and global player. The momentum for enhanced cooperation between Indonesia and China gathered pace during the Yudhoyono presidency (2004–14) with the signing of the “Strategic Partnership” in 2005, which was then elevated to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” in 2013. Under President Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi), Indonesia-China relations have become even closer, especially in the economic field. China is now Indonesia's most important trading partner and a major source of foreign investment for the government's signature infrastructure projects, while Chinese tourists constitute the largest group of visitors to Indonesia.

The increasingly close economic relations between Indonesia and China, particularly under the Jokowi presidency, and their wider social, political and security ramifications have attracted considerable scholarly attention lately, as well as public scrutiny and concern. Many analysts have underlined the fact that domestic dynamics have always been the primary drivers of Indonesia's foreign policy, and that elite as well as public opinions are divided over the current rise of China, which is seen as both a threat and an opportunity. While differences of opinions and competition for power and influence are to be expected in a democracy — and in Indonesia's highly heterogeneous society — some degree of consensus is needed to ensure that a particular policy can be adopted and sustained in the long run. Jakarta-Beijing relations have always, since diplomatic ties were first established in 1950, been complicated. And more than with any other country, relations with China continue to impinge on Indonesian domestic affairs, particularly as a consequence of the significant Chinese-Indonesian population.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×