Megawati Says China Has a 200-Year Development Plan: What Are We Thinking?

JAKARTA - Fifth President of the Republic of Indonesia Megawati Soekarnoputri stated that China currently has a development plan extending 200 years into the future. In contrast, Indonesia lacks a clear long-term development plan. “So now China has one for the next 200 years. Well, shouldn’t we think about it? What are smart people for? How can we not create something like that, figuring out how this country should be? What about food security?” Megawati said in her speech at the conferment of the Emeritus Professor title to Arief Hidayat at Borobudur University, Jakarta, on Saturday (2/5/2026). “Why has China, which was once just the Bamboo Curtain brought by Bung Karno to the Asia Africa Conference, now advanced so much? That’s because they built their nation and character properly,” Megawati remarked. “But now we’re just doing poco-poco, no direction, everyone doing their own thing,” she continued. Megawati admitted that she often corresponds with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In those letters, Xi mentioned that before every congress, he is always asked to think about China’s future for the next 100 years. “President Xi Jinping writes to me every time there’s a congress. Now, Mega, during the last congress, I was again instructed to make plans for the future. So, 100 years,” Megawati said. One issue relates to the discussion of revisions to the Election Law (RUU Pemilu), which is seen as stalled in the House of Representatives (DPR RI) to the point where there are talks of the government taking over the deliberation. “Now there’s a fuss about the upcoming elections. I even wonder, is this really for the people or for whom? Because if even the DPR up to today is going to be taken over by the government,” Megawati said. “I’m saying, why take it over by the government? It shows the current situation, which in my view is what I called poco-poco earlier,” she added.