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  • Indonesian President-elect Prabowo meets with Chinese leader Xi, discusses deeper strategic ties

    Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday and was expected to travel on to Japan for similar high-level talks during an unprecedented trip by the uninstalled head of Indonesia’s next government.

    Outgoing Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo agreed to the travel plans of the president-elect who continues to serve as defense minister, according to Jokowi’s office. Prabowo is to take the oath of office in October, when he becomes Indonesia’s first new president in a decade.

    “Yes, he had received permission,” a source at the Presidential Staff Office who was not authorized to speak on the trip and asked for anonymity told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service, on Monday.

    Prabowo was scheduled to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and Defense Minister Dong Jun before leaving for Japan on Tuesday, where he was to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, officials said.

    The news on Friday that China’s president had invited his future Indonesian counterpart from Southeast Asia’s largest country raised eyebrows in Jakarta, because no president-elect had ever undertaken such a trip abroad. Prabowo’s trip to China and Japan – a close ally of the United States – is also his first foreign journey since he won the Feb. 14 presidential election.

    During Prabowo’s meeting with the Chinese president, Xi told Prabowo that China was willing to enhance “comprehensive strategic cooperation” with Indonesia and make positive contributions to regional and world peace, said Brig. Gen. Edwin Adrian Sumantha, spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Defense.

    Prabowo expressed the hope to Xi that the largest country in Asia and the largest one in Southeast Asia could continue strengthening their strategic partnership, Edwin said.

    “Regarding defense cooperation, I view China as one of the key partners in ensuring regional peace and stability,” Prabowo said, according to a statement released by the Indonesian defense ministry.

    “I am also committed to fulfilling Indonesia’s Minimum Essential Force (MEF), including increasing defense industry cooperation and productive dialogue,” the Indonesian president-elect said.

    The statement did not mention the South China Sea despite a recent study by Indonesia Strategic and Defence Studies (ISDS) and Kompas Research and Development finding that nearly three-quarters of Indonesians see China’s activities in the waterway as a threat to Indonesia’s sovereignty.

    “The Indonesian public does not like the aggressiveness of Chinese ships which are pushing into Indonesian territory,” ISDS co-founder Erik Purnama Putra told BenarNews last month, referring to waters around Indonesia’s Natuna islands.

    Edwin said Prabowo was to go to Japan for a Tuesday meeting to strengthen long-standing bilateral relations.

    “Yes, the statement is confirmed. He will also visit Japan on April 2 to 3, scheduled to meet with the Japanese prime minister and defense minister,” Edwin told BenarNews on Monday.

    TH-CH-prabowo2.JPG
    Chinese officials led by President Xi Jinping (left side of table) meet with President-elect Prabowo Subianto and other Indonesian officials in a meeting room at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, April 1, 2024. [Indonesian Defense Ministry]

    During his meeting with Prabowo, Xi also emphasized that China was ready to make positive contributions to maintaining regional and global peace and stability.

    “President Xi emphasized the importance of cooperation between China and Indonesia in maintaining maritime security in the Southeast Asia region, especially regarding the South China Sea issue which is of global concern,” Edwin said.

    Prabowo conveyed greetings and a message from Jokowi to Xi, and said he was happy to make China the first country he visited following the election.

    In his message, Jokowi told Xi that his successor as president supported developing closer ties with China and would continue Indonesia’s friendly policy toward China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency.

    During Jokowi’s nine years in office, bilateral trade with China has soared and Beijing has invested billions of U.S. dollars in infrastructure projects in Indonesia.

    Recalling the development of bilateral relations over the past decade, Xi said both sides had made the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway an example of high-quality cooperation and entered a new stage of development.

    China views its relations with Indonesia from a strategic and long-term perspective, Xi said, according to Xinhua.

    He said Beijing would work with Jakarta to build a Sino-Indonesian community with a shared future that has regional and global influence to contribute to regional and world peace, stability and prosperity.

    ‘Too soon’

    Indonesian international political analysts, meanwhile, questioned making China the first stop for Prabowo before taking office.

    “Prabowo’s visit to China is too soon. It would have been better if he had waited until he was inaugurated first, then visited a foreign country,” Raden Mokhamad Luthfi, a defense analyst at Al Azhar University, told BenarNews last week.

    “Visits to foreign countries by the newly inaugurated Indonesian president should first be toneighboring ASEAN-member countries such as Malaysia, considering that Indonesia’s interests are much greater in ASEAN than in other countries,” Raden said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    Prabowo has bucked tradition in another way as well with his overseas trip, according to Zulfikar Rahmat, director of the China-Indonesia Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios).

    “There are two reasons for this. The first is, of course, that Prabowo sees China as a partner in the economic sector. We know that in recent years, China has been Indonesia’s number one trading partner,” he said.

    Last year, Indonesia became the largest recipient of Chinese investment in the Southeast Asia region with a figure reaching U.S. $7.3 billion, according to data from the State’s Investment Coordinating Board.

    In October 2023, Erick Thohir, State-Owned Enterprises minister, said the Indonesia-China Business Forum had resulted in 31 business cooperation agreements reaching at least 200 trillion rupiah ($15.5 billion).

    Even so, he added there is still potential for cooperation of up to $28.6 billion with China covering infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and tourism.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pizaro Gozali Idrus and Dandy Koswaraputra.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Taiwan’s pro-China speaker choice stirs fears of deeper Beijing influence

    The former pro-China mayor of Taiwan’s Kaohsiung has been elected speaker of the Legislative Yuan sparking local civic groups’ protests to “reject China’s choice”.

    Han Kuo-yu of the main opposition and Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) emerged victorious after two rounds of voting on Thursday, an outcome that could challenge the ruling and pro-independent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which last month won the presidential election. Neither of the two parties, along with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), had more than half of the seats of the legislature – DPP with 51 seats, KMT 52, and TPP eight.

    By law, the Speaker is to remain neutral in Parliament, but plays a crucial role in determining which bills are put up for discussion in the legislature that controls spending. 

    Speaking to reporters after his win, Han thanked the KMT and independent legislators, as well as urged the public to look forward to a new and reform-driven legislature that will create happiness for the Taiwanese people.

    The DPP issued a statement to congratulate the new speaker, and emphasized that “in the future, the three parties will jointly bear the responsibility for national progress.”

    Hours before the voting for speakership began, a coalition of about ten civic and non-governmental organizations gathered outside the legislature complex to protest against the voting for “China’s preferred candidate.”

    “Kuo-yu becomes Speaker and introduces the Communist Party. We reject China’s choice. We don’t want China’s choice,” read one placard.

    “Taiwan is the Taiwan of Taiwanese people, the Taiwan of the world, not the Taiwan of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]. Stop lying to young people, and don’t go back to the old politics,” Kao Fan-hsi, leader of the rally, told the crowd.

    ENG_CHN_Speaker_02022024_2.JPG
    Demonstrators gather near the parliament building to protest against the candidacy for parliament speaker of Han Kuo-yu from Taiwan’s largest opposition party the Kuomintang, in Taipei, Taiwan on Feb. 1, 2024. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

    Separately, the Taiwan Green Party, one of civic groups, stated: “Letting a person who agrees with the CCP’s ‘1992 consensus’ become the speaker of Taiwan’s parliament is probably the biggest breakthrough for the CCP to infiltrate and unite Taiwan. It is undoubtedly a humiliation and threat to Taiwan’s democracy.”

    The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding reached in that year between the then-ruling KMT and Beijing. Both sides acknowledge that there is only “one China,” with each side free to interpret what that “one China” refers to.

    Han seen as a “national security risk”

    Elected as Kaohsiung’s mayor in late 2018, Han swiftly visited Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China in March of the following year. His meeting with Wang Zhimin, the then-director of China’s Liaison Office for Hong Kong and Macau, sparked significant controversy within Taiwan’s political spheres.

    Before the speaker’s vote on Thursday, president-elect Lai raised concerns about how Han’s election and potential meetings between the island’s mayors and Chinese officials would affect Taiwan’s international image. 

    After being sworn in, Han addressed Lai’s concerns directly, saying: “Don’t be overly nervous and don’t overinterpret.”

    Han also affirmed his commitment to Taiwan, promising to uphold the constitution, remain neutral, and empower the Legislative Yuan to fulfill its duties and responsibilities.  

    Taiwan Association of University Professors President Chen Li-Fu described Han’s win as “an unprecedented congressional crisis.” 

    He believes that China had hoped for Han to be elected as Han has visited the Liaison Office and it would be no surprise if the speaker eventually visits or delivers a speech at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The CPPCC is the CCP’s political advisory body.

    “China’s preparations for the threat of force against Taiwan and its annexation ambitions have never stopped,” Chen told Radio Free Asia. 

    “In the future, when Han presides over discussions in the legislature, he doesn’t even need to object, but only has to be passive and uncooperative – the domestic submarine production or the US military procurement funds will be delayed, or initiate a technical delay of a few years until the United States no longer wants to sell, we’d achieve the goal.”

    Although Taiwan only has 12 diplomatic allies, Chen stressed that the self-governing island, which Beijing considers its own, has maintained very close congressional exchanges in recent years with democratic countries including the United States, Japan, Australia, and in Europe. 

    Taiwan needs to leverage this second-track and alternate congressional diplomacy to increase its international space, he noted.

    Translated by RFA staff. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn. 


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Huang Chunmei for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Mass Media Needs to Probe Deeper into Israel’s Invasion of Gaza

    In the midst of extensive coverage of the war in Gaza, there are questions that the U.S. mass media should address:

    1. How did Hamas, with tiny Gaza surrounded by a 17-year Israeli blockade, subjected to unparalleled electronic surveillance, with spies and informants, and augmented by an overwhelming air, sea and land military presence, manage to get these weapons and associated technology for their October 7 surprise raid?

    2. What is the connection between the stunning failure of the Israeli government to protect its people on the border and the policy of P.M. Netanyahu? Recall the New York Times (October 22, 2023) article by prominent journalist, Roger Cohen, to wit: “All means were good to undo the notion of Palestinian statehood. In 2019, Mr. Netanyahu told a meeting of his center-right Likud party: ‘Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy.’” (Note: Israel and the U.S. fostered the rise of Islamic Hamas in 1987 to counter the secular Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO]).

    3. Why is Congress preparing to appropriate over $14 billion to Israel in military and other aid without any public hearings and without any demonstrated fiscal need by Israel, a prosperous economic, technological and military superpower with a social safety net superior to that of the U.S.? USDA just reported over 44 million Americans struggled with hunger in 2022. This, in the midst of a childcare crisis. Should U.S. taxpayers be expected to pay for Netanyahu’s colossal intelligence/military collapse?

    4. Why hasn’t the media reported on President Biden’s statement that the Gaza Health Ministry’s body count (now over 7000 fatalities) is exaggerated? All indications, however, are that it is a large undercount by Hamas to minimize its inability to protect its people. Israel has fired over 8,000 powerful precision munitions and bombs so far. These have struck many thousands of inhabited buildings – homes, apartments buildings, over 120 health facilities, ambulances, crowded markets, fleeing refugees, schools, water and sewage systems, and electric networks – implementing Israeli military orders to cut off all food, water, fuel, medicine and electricity to this already impoverished densely packed area the size of Philadelphia. For those not directly slain, the deadly harm caused by no food, water, medicine, medical facilities and fuel will lead to even more deaths and serious injuries.

    Note that over three-quarters of Gaza’s population consists of children and women. Soon there will be thousands of babies born to die in the rubble. Other Palestinians will perish from untreated diseases, injuries, dehydration, and from drinking contaminated water. With crumbled sanitation facilities, physicians are fearing a deadly cholera epidemic.

    Israel bombed the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. Only a tiny trickle of trucks are now allowed there by Israel to carry food and water. Fuel for hospital generators still remains blocked.

    5. Why can’t Biden even persuade Israel to let 600 desperate Americans out of the Gaza firestorm?

    6. Why isn’t the mass media making a bigger issue out of Israel’s long-time practices of blocking journalists from entering Gaza, including European, American and Israeli journalists? The only television crews left are Gazan-residing Al Jazeera reporters. Israeli bombs have already killed 26 journalists in the Gaza Strip since October 7. Is Israel targeting journalists’ families? The Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera, Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.

    7. Why isn’t the mainstream U.S. media giving adequate space and voice to groups advocating a ceasefire and humanitarian aid? The message of Israeli peace groups’ peaceful solutions are drowned out by the media’s addiction to interviews with military tacticians. Much time and space are being given to hawks pushing for a war that could flash outside of Gaza big time. Shouldn’t groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the Arab-American Institute, Veterans for Peace and associations of clergy have their views and activities reported?

    8. Why is the coverage of the war overlooking the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Charter and the many provisions of international law that all the parties, including the U.S., have been violating? (See the October 24, 2023 letter to President Biden). Under international law, Biden has made the U.S. an active “co-belligerent,” of the Israeli government’s vocal demolition of the 2.3 million inhabitants in Gaza, who are mostly descendants of Palestinian refugees driven from their homes in 1948. (See, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).

    9. What about the human-interest stories that would be revealing? For example: How do Israeli F-16 pilots feel about their daily bombing of the completely defenseless Gazan civilian population and its life-sustaining infrastructures? What are the courageous Israeli human rights and refuseniks thinking and doing in a climate of serious repression of their views as a result of Netanyahu’s defense collapse on October 7?

    10. Where is the media attention on the statements from Israeli military commentators, who, for years have declared high-tech US-backed, nuclear-armed Israel to be more secure than at any time in its history? Israel is reasserting its overwhelming military domination of the entire region, fully backed by U.S. militarism.

    Historians remind us that in a grid-locked conflict over time, it is the most powerful party’s responsibility to lead the way to peace.

    Establishing a two-state solution has been supported by Palestinians. All the Arab nations, starting with the Arab League peace proposal in 2002, support this solution as well. It is up to Israel and the U.S., assuming annexation of what is left of Palestine is not Israel’s objective. (See, the March 29, 2002 New York Times article: Mideast Turmoil; Text of the Peace Proposals Backed by the Arab League).

    More media attention on this subject matter is much needed.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Ralph Nader.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.