Reflections | As Indonesia eyes a new capital city, ancient China’s shifting seats of government can offer inspiration
The island nation is considering relocating governance from a sinking Jakarta. In China, the capital city shifted north, south, east and west according to a variety of factors
The Indonesian government is conducting a feasibility study into moving the national capital from Jakarta, a massive and overcrowded city of 10 million people (Greater Jakarta has 30 million) on the island of Java. Kalimantan on Borneo, the island Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei, is widely considered a strong contender.
Supporters of this plan argue that a capital at the geographical centre of Indonesia’s 17,000-plus islands would facilitate administration and a more equitable distribution of national resources. There are also safety considerations. It would be prudent to move the seat of government away from an earthquake zone and a sinking city; some parts of Jakarta may be under water by 2050.
In China, Beijing (“the northern capital”) is just the most “recent” national capital, from the late 13th century to the present day, with a couple of brief interregnums. In the preceding three millennia, various dynasties located their capitals elsewhere.
A few cities stand out for their repeated appearance as the national capital. Modern Xian and its environs have had various names, most famously Changan (“perpetual peace”), the capital of the Chinese empire during the Western Han (206BC-AD9) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, when Chinese military power and cultural influence were at their zenith. It was also capital of the fledgling Chinese nation during the Western Zhou dynasty (circa 1045-771BC); the Qin dynasty (221-206BC), when China was first unified; and the Sui (581-618), a brief but pivotal forerunner of the Tang dynasty.
Luoyang (“north of the Luo River”) was the capital of multiple dynasties, too, notably the Eastern Zhou (770-256BC) and the Eastern Han (AD25-220), so named because of Luoyang’s location east of Xian, their predecessors’ capital. South of the Yangtze River, Nanjing (“the southern capital”) was the seat of government for Han Chinese regimes that fled south whenever the north was occupied by non-Han dynasties. It was briefly the capital of the whole nation during the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and sporadically in the early 20th century, when China was mired in revolution, foreign invasion and civil war.