IMPROVING CHINA’S SOFT POWER: BOOSTING CHINA-INDONESIA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL COOPERATION

Hidayat, Nur IMPROVING CHINA’S SOFT POWER: BOOSTING CHINA-INDONESIA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL COOPERATION. THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON CHINA-INDONESIA PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGE AMONG UNIVERSITIES (2018) CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS.

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Abstract

As the world is entering the 21st century, we see the world civilization is shifting from the West to the East. China is then the leading country representing the progress of Asia’s civilization. China emerges as the super power country in terms of economy and military power. The unipolar international system, represented by the US, accordingly, has come under renewed challenge by the rising power of China. China’s miraculous growth and wealth creation, unfortunately has been accompanied by the loss of American influence in various parts at the world. However, the big leap of China’s progress have been responded with different reactions by Asian countries and the world. China’s progress is perceived either as hope and threat. Hope implies that China’s progress could be of a great benefit for the neighboring countries and the world. Threat implies that China’s progress may pose threat to the other regions either in terms of economy and military. Regarding China-Indonesian relation, it showed up and down stages in history. Indonesia enjoyed a very good relation during Soekarno’s administration. On the other hand, China-Indonesia relation deteriorated during Soekarno’s era following the failed attempt of coup de’ etat by Indonesian Communist Party in which China was suspected to have been involved in the incident. Despite the up and down relation, Chinese culture influence are evident in Indonesia in culinary, martial arts, dance, music, and fashion. To improve China-Indonesia relation, soft power diplomacy is highly recommended such as in culture and education cooperations. The following programs could be conducted to boost China-Indonesia educational and cultural cooperations: 1) the optimalization of Confucius Center in Indonesia, 2) the establishment of Indonesia center in China, 3) the intensification of Indonesian and Mandarin language teaching, 4) the improvement of culture mutual exhibitions, 5) the establishment of CSC (China Scholarship Council) Center, 6) the incentive of Mandarin course programs for China Scholarship applicants in China, and 7) the improvement of China-Indonesia university to universitycollaborations. Successful improvement of China-Indonesia education and culture collaborations will create better understanding and respect between Chinese and Indonesian people. It will then result in better acceptance of China’s important position in the world by Indonesian people. Keywords : civilization improvement, to boost, cooperation, soft power diplomacy.

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