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Opinion | Could tensions with China threaten Indonesia’s tradition of superpower diplomacy?
- China’s rapid ascent and the threat of a Sino-US cold war are testing Indonesia’s strategic mettle and making pragmatic balancing increasingly difficult
- Anti-Chinese sentiment and heated domestic politics in Indonesia, combined with the Natuna Islands dispute, could push Jakarta into Washington’s embrace
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“We must remain the subject who reserves the right to decide our own destiny and fight for our own goal, which is independence for the whole of Indonesia,” Mohammad Hatta, one of the Indonesian republic’s founding fathers, said during the country’s early years. With the US-Soviet Union Cold War kicking in, he advocated for a non-aligned foreign policy akin to “rowing between two reefs”.
Decades later, Hatta’s mantra of dynamic balancing between competing superpowers continues to guide Indonesian foreign policy. Under President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, Indonesia has nimbly pursed pragmatic “equidistant diplomacy” with both the US and China.
On one hand, Indonesia has deepened its economic interdependence with China, a major source of infrastructure investment and advanced technology. At the same time, it is rapidly fortifying defence and strategic cooperation with the US, with both countries recently launching a “strategic dialogue” and conducting their largest joint military drills in recent memory.
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Indonesia, a cradle of the global Non-Aligned Movement, in many ways has stood as the ultimate expression of balancing between powers. But China’s rapid ascent and the threat of a Sino-American cold war are testing Indonesia’s strategic mettle and making pragmatic balancing increasingly difficult.
Since the restoration of bilateral ties in 1990, Sino-Indonesian relations have bloomed. Indonesia’s trade volume with China is triple that of its trade with US, while the number of Chinese tourists flocking to Indonesia in the pre-pandemic era exceeds that of any Western nation.
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China eyes up investment opportunities as Indonesia makes plans to move its capital
China eyes up investment opportunities as Indonesia makes plans to move its capital
China’s investments in Indonesia increased 17-fold between 2007 and 2017, a dynamic that could intensify under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese companies, particularly Huawei, have helped modernise Indonesia’s telecommunications infrastructure.
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