Sino-RI ties should include defense, security cooperation
Oei Eng Goan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
China's foreign diplomacy in 2001, the first year of its 10th five-year plan for national, economic and social development, has got into its stride as proven by its successful hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Shanghai, its acceptance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and winning the bid to become the host country for the Olympics in 2008.
Relations with its neighbors also improved markedly when Beijing and all 10-member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed in November to set up the China-ASEAN free trade area within the next decade.
This means that Indonesia, the largest member of ASEAN as well as the richest in natural resources, should not miss the opportunity to further enhance bilateral ties with China on the basis of mutual interest and a win-win situation.
It is true that Sino-Indonesian trade has developed well over the past decade following the resumption of full diplomatic ties in 1990 -- from US$1.18 billion in 1990 to $7.47 billion in 2000, with an increase of 54.5 percent over 1999 and always in Indonesia's favor -- but friendly ties are not based on trade alone. Political and cultural cooperation should also be included, especially now that the international community is facing rapid changes, prompting countries to cooperate more closely so as to create a more equal balance of power.
China and Indonesia signed several agreements in November during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Jakarta, covering agriculture, fishing, energy and infrastructure. All this is good, if appropriately and realistically implemented, in that it will quicken the recovery of Indonesia's economic plight.
Realistically, because, according to sources, while the Jakarta administration plans to build a bridge linking Java and Sumatra with China's help, Beijing has instead proposed that, along with other international financial institutions, it would be more beneficial and less costly for Indonesia to build a bridge linking Java and Bali.
In return, China has invited Indonesia to participate in its energy and gas development in its southern province of Guangdong. Beijing has reportedly hinted to Jakarta that it wants to buy high-quality building materials from Indonesia for building and refurbishing hotels and sports facilities required for the Olympic Games in the coming seven years.
There is, however, slight mention of bilateral security and defense cooperation.
Indonesia's strategic geographic location, lying on the crossroads between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and bridging Asia and Australia, obviously needs a strong and reliable defense and security capability in maintaining its territorial integrity, as well as cracking down on increasing transnational crimes such as human trafficking, smuggling and piracy.
Being banned by most of its traditional arms suppliers on the grounds of violating human rights in its former province of East Timor, Indonesia should turn to China, whose arms industry has won international recognition, to obtain what it cannot get from Western countries as a result of the ban.
Moreover, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic country, and as such requires a defense capability that is suitable to achieve cohesive national security and sovereignty, so as to contribute to regional peace and stability, a conducive situation also needed by China to develop itself to become a world superpower.
Hence, Indonesia's armed forces should make use of the opportunity of the growing bilateral ties to modernize its obsolete equipment, especially in its naval force, from China's advanced military technology and industry.
Under pragmatic leadership over the past decade, China is currently phasing out orthodox communism and the proletarian dictatorship with more democratic and reformative principles introduced by President Jiang Zemin's Theory of Three Representations, focusing on productivity and efficiency, advancement of culture and learning and political, economic development that caters to the public interest.
Present-day China, unlike China in the 1960s, which was allegedly eager to export communism to its neighbors, is an open country that is moving toward democracy. Although it still adopts communism as its state ideology, it nevertheless exercises a free-market economy and the majority of its 1.3 billion population, especially those in urban areas, have adhered to a more liberal way of life.
As the initiators of peaceful coexistence and the 10 Principles of the Bandung conference of 1955, Indonesia and China should forge a firmer friendship in a more constructive and fruitful way. And the Jakarta government, for its part, should be more active in taking up opportunities given by Beijing.