Garuda and Red Dragon Diplomacy

The cooperation on cross-border QRIS between Indonesia and China has been officially launched on 30 April 2026. As the wise Chinese proverb goes: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This adage is apt for describing the start of a journey involving thousands, even millions, of Indonesia-China cross-border QRIS transactions, beginning with a small, tangible first step: the initial scan. This becomes a historic moment that opens up greater opportunities for Indonesia’s grassroots economic actors with the world’s giant market. With a single QR code scan, we are witnessing the most inclusive process of digitalising foreign exchange. Every Yuan brought by Chinese tourists can now be directly deposited into the accounts of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (UMKM) in the remotest parts of the archipelago. This cooperation, of course, cannot be separated from the developments in Indonesia’s tourism dynamics in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. China has reaffirmed its position as one of the main contributors of tourists to Indonesia’s tourism sector. On the other hand, China is now the second favourite overseas destination for Indonesian tourists. The massive flow of cross-border travel requires a payment infrastructure that aligns with the contemporary lifestyle of highly mobile-centric tourists. The implementation of QRIS Cross-Border is Indonesia’s proactive strategy to capture opportunities from the high mobility of people between the two countries. Through the integration of QRIS with global payment giants such as Alipay and UnionPay, Indonesia aims to ensure that every visiting tourist no longer has to bother with cash exchange or the risks of carrying large amounts of physical money. This security and convenience psychologically encourages tourists to be bolder in exploring Indonesian tourist destinations and to shop more for UMKM products. This cooperation is essentially the unification of the two largest digital economic forces in Asia.