https://www.scmp.com/rss/500841/feed Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is an academic at Universitas Islam Indonesia and is a researcher associate at Jakarta-based Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF). His research focuses on China's foreign policy in Indonesia and the Middle East. He completed his PhD on the Belt and Road Initiatives in the Gulf at the University of Manchester in 2018. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com It’s no secret that China wants Indonesia to sign up to its new global development and security initiatives, but Jakarta is going to take some convincing before it takes the plunge. On paper, Beijing’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) and Global Security Initiative (GSI) both have a lot to offer Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Chinese officials know this, and have been actively promoting the strategies to their Indonesian counterparts any time they get a chance. Yet Indonesia has so far... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3209824/why-indonesia-wary-chinas-new-development-security-initiatives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3209824/why-indonesia-wary-chinas-new-development-security-initiatives?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Feb 2023 01:00:18 +0000 President Xi Jinping’s speech at the 20th party congress in November provided a forecast of China’s policy towards the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years: military build-up and foreign expansion. Xi has expressed his determination to defend China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. In 2017, he called for revolutionising the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a world-class military by 2035. Last year, Xi said the PLA’s transformation had to be accomplished by the 100th... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3206687/china-building-its-military-can-indonesia-step-maintain-regional-security?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3206687/china-building-its-military-can-indonesia-step-maintain-regional-security?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jan 2023 02:00:21 +0000 Indonesia and China have been boosting their economic cooperation in recent years, but one area where they can do more is in education, which has seen growing demand for talent fluent in the Indonesian language. Education ties between the two countries began in 1949, when Peking University organised an Indonesian language department for the first time in mainland China. In 1960, Beijing Foreign Studies University – known for producing some of China’s best diplomats – co-founded an Indonesian... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3191922/can-chinese-students-learning-indonesian-help-bridge-cultural-gap?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3191922/can-chinese-students-learning-indonesian-help-bridge-cultural-gap?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2022 01:00:36 +0000 This article has been withdrawn as, upon review, it did not meet the South China Morning Post’s editorial standards. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3184088/ties-bind-how-literature-exchanges-can-strengthen-indonesias-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3184088/ties-bind-how-literature-exchanges-can-strengthen-indonesias-role?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Jul 2022 23:00:14 +0000 Indonesia’s financial obligations to China are increasing, and there are worries they will continue to expand. Based on data from Bank Indonesia, debt from Chinese creditors as of March this year stood at US$22.01 billion, an increase from February’s figure of US$20.82 billion. Hong Kong creditors are also owed money, with total debt in March reaching US$16.85 billion. That is an increase from the March 2021 figure of US$14.25 billion, but down from the February 2022 total of US$16.97... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3181229/are-indonesia-malaysia-and-sri-lanka-really-victims-chinas-belt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3181229/are-indonesia-malaysia-and-sri-lanka-really-victims-chinas-belt?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jun 2022 23:30:13 +0000 On November 3, which Indonesia commemorates as Santri Day, a virtual seminar was held by the Indonesian Alumni Association in China with the Islamic Boarding School of Nurul Jadid in East Java province about the role that Santri Muslims have played in strengthening relations between Indonesia and China. Santri, who practise a more orthodox version of Islam rather than the syncretic Javanese version that incorporates local customs, often study at traditional Islamic boarding schools. Their name,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3113047/indonesias-santri-muslims-chance-bridge-gap-china-uygurs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3113047/indonesias-santri-muslims-chance-bridge-gap-china-uygurs?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Dec 2020 02:00:09 +0000 Concerns are growing in Indonesia over a coronavirus vaccine being rushed to development in partnership with China’s Sinovac Biotech, and whether everyone in the country will have access to it even if it does prove effective. The vaccine candidate known as CoronaVac is set to be tested on some 1,620 volunteers in Indonesia starting this week, making it among only a handful in the world to enter large-scale clinical trials on humans. Sinovac has either started or plans to carry out similar trials... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3097035/indonesias-sinovac-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-raises-safety?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3097035/indonesias-sinovac-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-raises-safety?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Aug 2020 05:27:08 +0000 Japan, after being outbid by China for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project, has been working with the Indonesian government to develop a separate medium-speed line connecting Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java. Now these two lines are to be brought together, forming a Jakarta-Bandung-Surabaya line, in a rare Belt and Road Initiative project that will see some collaboration between Chinese and Japanese engineers. Indonesia’s foreign affairs minister Retno Marsudi last month said Jakarta... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3092487/indonesia-moving-towards-japan-and-away-china-just-follow-railway?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3092487/indonesia-moving-towards-japan-and-away-china-just-follow-railway?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jul 2020 10:00:13 +0000 China and Indonesia will mark the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties on Monday, at a time when the battle against Covid-19 is topmost on the minds of its leaders. Indonesia is struggling with a surge in coronavirus cases, with more than 3,000 infections so far, and has received Chinese donations of medical supplies. China’s new infections have fallen from their peak two months ago, with effortsnow focused on curbing imported cases and preventing asymptomatic ones from causing a new... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3079301/coronavirus-can-strengthen-chinas-ties-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3079301/coronavirus-can-strengthen-chinas-ties-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Apr 2020 03:45:13 +0000 When the bones of a hitherto-unknown relative of modern man were found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, the discovery shocked the scientific world into rethinking some of its most basic assumptions about our evolution. What surprised scientists about this one-metre-tall pygmy human (homo floresiensis or “the little lady of Flores”) was not only that she had existed so recently – 50,000 years is the blink of an eyelid in evolutionary terms – but also that clues to her existence had... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076089/coronavirus-covid-19-could-live-indonesia-long-after-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076089/coronavirus-covid-19-could-live-indonesia-long-after-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2020 02:30:12 +0000 The cannabis plant is not new to Indonesia. According to Inang Winarso, executive director of the Sativa Nusantara Foundation, an organisation actively researching the use of medical marijuana, it was first brought by merchants and sailors from Gujarat in India to Aceh in the 14th century to be used not only for smoking, but also as a steeped drink, a cooking spice, and as a type of pest control. And since the 15th century in Ambon, cannabis has been used as a medicine for various diseases such... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074058/fears-drug-abuse-aside-indonesia-should-give-medical-marijuana?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074058/fears-drug-abuse-aside-indonesia-should-give-medical-marijuana?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Mar 2020 09:00:18 +0000 The confirmation on Monday that Indonesia had two cases of the coronavirus ended weeks of insistence by officials that the country had no infections within its borders. The patients are a 31-year-old woman and her 64-year-old mother who live in Depok in West Java, just outside the capital Jakarta. The younger woman had come into contact with an infected Japanese traveller from Malaysia last month, and is believed to have infected her mother. There are now six other patients suspected of having... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3065004/can-indonesians-trust-jokowis-government-coronavirus-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3065004/can-indonesians-trust-jokowis-government-coronavirus-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2020 09:00:15 +0000 Although the 238 Indonesian citizens evacuated from Wuhan, China, to the Natuna Islands for a two-week coronavirus quarantine have been released, the circumstances of their quarantine have had one clear consequence – the fraying of trust between the local government and people and the national government, underlining the need for greater policy coordination should future exigencies occur. Based on World Health Organisation rules, Indonesia should have first demonstrated that it had the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051007/no-coronavirus-indonesias-handling-wuhan-evacuees-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051007/no-coronavirus-indonesias-handling-wuhan-evacuees-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:00:09 +0000 China and Indonesia have both used integrated rural development policies as part or their overall poverty-reduction programmes, yet they have achieved two very different outcomes. While China has been able to minimise poverty through the implementation of its programmes, Indonesia has not been as effective, ranking 62nd out of 113 countries on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index, which measures food security globally. Although the country has experienced solid economic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049814/feed-hungry-nation-indonesia-can-follow-chinas-blueprint?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049814/feed-hungry-nation-indonesia-can-follow-chinas-blueprint?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Feb 2020 02:00:14 +0000 The recent policy changes in Indonesia’s national health insurance programme have been invaluable: they have not only made health care accessible to millions of formerly neglected patients, they have also breathed fresh air into the country’s pharmaceutical industry thanks to now soaring demand for drugs from new patients. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Indonesia’s pharmaceutical industry is the fact that almost 90 per cent of the raw materials used in making drugs are imported from... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3048628/china-could-be-key-partner-lifting-indonesias-pharmaceutical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3048628/china-could-be-key-partner-lifting-indonesias-pharmaceutical?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:00:18 +0000 As Indonesia faced off against China in the Natuna Sea earlier this month, it agreed to strengthen maritime cooperation with Japan, in a sign of how it intends to balance its ties with its largest foreign investors. On January 11, three Indonesian military vessels expelled more than 50 Chinese ships from its exclusive economic zone in the Natuna Sea off the coast of Borneo, after days of incursions in the fishing-rich waters bordering the South China Sea. A day earlier, Indonesian President Joko... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046429/indonesia-stands-china-natuna-islands-can-japan-come-rescue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046429/indonesia-stands-china-natuna-islands-can-japan-come-rescue?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2020 02:00:18 +0000 News about the 165,000 Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong dominates coverage of the relationship between the city and the Southeast Asian nation. These stories are often focused on the hardships endured by domestic workers from Indonesia, who work long hours for extremely low wages. While the two governments have worked to improve the situation, such reports continue to overshadow the continued expansion of their political, cultural and business ties. More controversy erupted last week... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3040976/why-indonesia-and-hong-kong-must-resolve-issues-faced-domestic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3040976/why-indonesia-and-hong-kong-must-resolve-issues-faced-domestic?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Dec 2019 04:15:13 +0000 On October 15, US Ambassador to Indonesia Joseph R. Donovan Jnr visited one of the country’s largest Muslim organisations, Muhammadiyah, urging its chairman Haedar Nashir to mount pressure on China to end the detention of the Uygur people. It was one of two encounters with major Muslim groups in which Donovan urged them to join Washington’s diplomatic push for China to end the worsening conditions of the Uygurs in northwest Xinjiang. But the US diplomat failed to get the response he was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3037362/indonesia-must-speak-against-china-uygurs-look-what-gambia-did?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3037362/indonesia-must-speak-against-china-uygurs-look-what-gambia-did?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Nov 2019 23:00:12 +0000 According to the proverb, when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. Well, so much for that proverb. The case of Indonesia shows that being the rope in a tug of war between two economic giants – in its case China and Japan – can be a very lucrative position indeed. First, consider the seemingly ever closer friendship between Jakarta and Beijing. Whether it is in education and media or investment and infrastructure, there’s little doubt that ties are at something of a high point. That’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3035237/why-indonesias-winner-next-china-japan-economic-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3035237/why-indonesias-winner-next-china-japan-economic-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Oct 2019 01:00:12 +0000 Indonesia is one of the world’s most biodiverse nations. It is thought that as many as 300,000 species, or almost one in five of the world’s animals, are to be found in this sprawling Southeast Asian nation. It is home to 515 species of mammals and 1,539 species of birds, and almost half of all fish species live in its waters. Unfortunately, this biological wealth is not matched by efforts to preserve it. After drugs and human trafficking, offences against wildlife are the third-most pressing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3027632/indonesias-pre-social-media-laws-are-no-match-animal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3027632/indonesias-pre-social-media-laws-are-no-match-animal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Sep 2019 07:37:09 +0000 The latest round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing earlier this month ended badly, with both sides firing a broadside – US President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs of 10 per cent on US$300 billion of previously untouched Chinese goods, while Beijing responded by lowering the value of the yuan. Weakening the Chinese currency to seven to the dollar, its lowest level in 11 years, knocked down financial markets and global commodities. Trump responded in kind by labelling... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3023193/how-us-china-currency-war-will-impact-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3023193/how-us-china-currency-war-will-impact-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Aug 2019 01:00:19 +0000 Indonesia made great strides in reforming its economy during the first term in office of President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi. The country’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business study rocketed from 114 in 2014 to 73 this year, and ratings agency Standard and Poor’s in 2017 joined Moody’s and Fitch in awarding BBB investment status. But securing capital remains a big challenge. According to government figures, investment grew 11.4 per cent a year in Widodo’s first term,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3022886/indonesia-still-wants-chinese-investments-jokowi-also-wooing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3022886/indonesia-still-wants-chinese-investments-jokowi-also-wooing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Aug 2019 04:34:11 +0000 Uncertainty drives dramatic shifts in the global economy, and investors and economists certainly cannot predict with any certainty what the US-China trade war may mean for the rest of the us. But it is precisely this unknown that will decide the winners and losers of the battle for economic supremacy, and Indonesia should take advantage. Trade wars start when a country adopts a protectionist approach, imposing import tariffs to protect domestic industries and open jobs. Such a move generally... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3015243/us-china-trade-war-vietnam-might-get-apple-indonesia-can-get-bite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3015243/us-china-trade-war-vietnam-might-get-apple-indonesia-can-get-bite?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jun 2019 11:54:25 +0000 The Gulf might not appear on the official map of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but Beijing’s international infrastructure investment plan is being actively realised in the region. Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched it in June 2014, various actors from China – including companies, banks, and financial institutions – have established a presence in the Gulf. Securing oil and energy resources is an important component of the belt and road plan’s regional aims, as is the construction of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3013435/oil-just-start-chinas-belt-and-road-interest-gulf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3013435/oil-just-start-chinas-belt-and-road-interest-gulf?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jun 2019 00:00:17 +0000 Rising paranoia about overseas Chinese workers in Indonesia suggests the ghosts of one of the most shameful episodes in the Southeast Asian nation’s history have never been laid to rest. It may be more than 20 years since the racially charged riots of 1998 that led to the downfall of the dictator Suharto, but the anti-Chinese sentiment that drove that violence – in which more than a thousand people died and scores of women were raped – lingers. Anyone who doubts that should consider the riot... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012676/whats-driving-indonesian-paranoia-over-chinese-workers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012676/whats-driving-indonesian-paranoia-over-chinese-workers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jun 2019 02:30:10 +0000 China has been one of the biggest foreign investors in Indonesia, spending no less than US$2.37 billion last year to finance 1,562 projects. And with new investments expected from agreements signed at last month’s Belt and Road Forum, China could soon be the archipelago’s largest investor. This comes as no surprise, given the increasing convergence of interests between both economies. Incumbent president Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, has shown his commitment to further develop the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3010278/indonesia-could-be-beijings-best-belt-and-road-friend?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3010278/indonesia-could-be-beijings-best-belt-and-road-friend?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2019 05:30:36 +0000