From Amity To Hostility: Relations Between China And Indonesia From1959to1967

The bilateral relationship of China and Indonesia between1949and1967is asignificant component in Cold War international history studies and a key researchproject in Cold War in Asia. Development in China-Indonesia relations was subject todomestic politics in both countries, especially in Indonesia, and closely associatedwith Asian Cold War dynamics. On August17th,1965, President Sukarno of Indonesiahailed China-Indonesia relations as “Peking-Djakarta Axis” in his speech celebratingthe20thanniversary of the founding of the Republic of Indonesia, which marked thepeak in this bilateral relationship, a quasi-alliance. However, in just6weeks, therelationship suffered a major subversion, deteriorated soon afterwards until the finalcollapse in1967.This thesis will interpret the historical transition from amity to hostility inChina-Indonesia relationship between1959and1967and analyze the deep-rootedcause of the collapse, based on two perspectives: Indonesia’s nation-state building andChina’s revolutionary foreign policy, as well as a division of three phases in therelationship.A former colony of more than3centuries, Indonesia is a newly founded republicafter World War II with a scattered territory and an unevenly distributed demography.Diversity in its internal ethnicity, languages and religions and frequent interferencefrom external powers made it extremely difficult in the process of nation-statebuilding in Indonesia. Faced with national traits of diversity and fragility, Indonesiapolitical elites employed an approach of creating an “enemy other” in forging aunified national identity and strengthening political legitimacy. In1959, PresidentSukarno established the Guided Democracy, taking Colonialism, Imperialism andCapitalism as the enemy other in order to build a nation-state. The resulting radicalforeign policy responded to China’s anti-imperialist attitude. The two countries thengradually developed an amity following the1962West Irian issue.The amity continued from1962to1965and reached its peak in1965as“Peking-Djakarta Axis”. China’s revolutionary foreign policy acted as the maindriving force. China, in the Cold War, is a country with dual identities, a third-worldcountry of a semi-colonial history and a socialist power gaining success through itsown revolution. The dual identities inflicted China with great confidence in its ownrevolutionary road. Influenced by Lenin’s theory of imperialism and proletarian internationalism, China encouraged and endorsed anti-colonial and anti-imperialistmovement in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In1960s, China’s foreign policy turnedleft and developed its relations with Indonesia under the strategy of winning theintermediate zone. Supporting financially and diplomatically in Indonesia’sinternational affairs of Konfrontasi, Indonesia’s quitting IOC and UN, China’srevolutionary foreign policy constantly pushed the relationship forward, andeventually led to the quasi-alliance of “Peking-Djakarta Axis” in1965.September30thMovement played the role as a watershed in China-Indonesiarelations. China-Indonesia relations deteriorated sharply from amity, quasi-alliance tohostility and finally a collapse in1967. On the surface, Indonesian domestic politicswas a triangle of “Sukarno-Indonesian Army-PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia)”;however, the system was never stable as it relied solely on Sukarno’s charisma andpolitical tactics and September30thMovement occurred in the end. In a new stage ofnation-state building initiated by Indonesian Army after the Movement, the approachof the “enemy other” was once again employed. Not surprisingly, PKI was taken asthe “internal enemy” of Indonesia and was purged and liquidated; China, for its longtime support of President Sukarno and PKI, was constructed as the “external enemy”.A structural conflict was then emerged between Indonesia’s nation-state buildingwhich constructed PKI and China as the enemy and China’s revolutionary foreignpolicy based on Sukarno and PKI, the relationship finally collapsed.