Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Analysis on China’s OBOR Policy in the

National Attributes Level of Analysis

Martin Simamora and Annisa Pratamasari

International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Airlangga

Keywords: China, foreign policy, national attributess, level of analysis, Indonesia

Abstract: On May 2017, Indonesia attended Beijing Summit that discussed about OBOR policy of China. This policy

is the most ambitious and large economic policy of China so far. Indonesia involved in one of the trade

network planned in the policy. China promote their OBOR policy to Indonesia by offered The Jakarta-

Bandung High-Speed Railway project with financial and labor investment and all the project will be done

based on China standard. Indonesia accepted the offering, shows that Indonesia support China for this

policy. This paper discusses Indonesia respond regarding China’s policy in national attributes level of

analysis. Sure, economic capability is one of the reasons why Indonesia acted so. But others attributess such

natural resources, geography, military capability and demography and its correlation with Indonesia foreign

policy will be further discussed in this paper.

1 INTRODUCTION

Over 2000 years ago, China’s Emperor Zhang Qian

had begun the construction of the Silk Road, a

network of trade routes connecting China to central

Asia and Arabia. This trade network is named Silk

because Silk is one of China’s most important

trading commodities. This line has subsequently

affected trade and economic development in the

region for hundreds of years since the discovery of

the trade route. Emperor Zhang Qian’s ambition was

then forwarded by Chinese President Xi Jinping by

proposing a more modern network of trade routes

through railways, roads, pipelines and utility

contacts that would connect China with Central

Asia, Western Asia and Southeast Asia (Jinchen,

2016). The policy then called One Belt One Road

(OBOR) and not only offers physical connection.

This policy aims to build the largest container of

economic cooperation in the world, including policy

coordination, trade and financial collaboration and

social and cultural cooperation.

The policy issued in 2015 consists of two main

components, the Silk Road Economic Belt that will

connect China to Europe, the Persian Gulf, the

Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean and the

21st Century Maritime Silk Road that connect China

to the regional sea lane. More than 60 countries have

shown their interest to participate in this OBOR

policy (Jinchen, 2016). Indonesia attended the

OBOR Summit in Beijing in May 2017, indicating

interest in this policy. China then offers major

investments, including the construction of the

Jakarta-Bandung high speed rail line and financial

investment to Indonesia. Indonesia then approved

this offer as a form of Indonesian support for

China’s foreign policy.

Foreign policy is the totality of a country’s

policies and interactions with the international

environment beyond the limits (Breuning, 2007). Of

course, in this regard, China’s OBOR policy and

Indonesia’s decision to participate in Chinese policy

are the foreign policy of their respective countries.

The discussion on foreign policy is very broad.

Therefore, there is a level of analysis in analyzing

the foreign policy of a country. This level of analysis

then able to explain why a country takes the form of

a certain foreign policy in a certain level. So, not all

levels always affect foreign policy. This paper

would like to see the effect of national attributes on

Indonesia’s decision to engage in China’s OBOR

policy. National attributes level of analysis is the

level of analysis consisting of aspects of state

identity, such as size, natural resources, geography,

demography, military capabilities and economic

capabilities. The selection of the analytical level

then adjusted to the policies that takes by a country.

Each level of analysis can be seen the relevance of

its aspects to the policy to be analyzed. In this paper,

516

Simamora, M. and Pratamasari, A.

Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Analysis on China’s OBOR Policy in the National Attributes Level of Analysis.

DOI: 10.5220/0010279600002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 516-521

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

the author will try to discuss Indonesian foreign

policy on Chinese OBOR policy at the national

attributes level of analysis.

2 LEVEL OF ANALYSIS:

NATIONAL ATTRIBUTES

In many areas of study, there are certain ways in

which phenomena can be learned, sorted and

arranged for the purpose of obtaining systematic

analysis (Singer, 1961). In analyzing the

phenomenon, there are various factors and causes

which can then explain why a phenomenon can

occur. However, researchers then always find

problems with system, subsystem and environment

phenomenon to the overall research environment,

making it very difficult to explain. In this case the

researcher should be able to evaluate the utility, both

conceptually and methodologically from various

alternatives, to focus on one of these alternatives in

explaining phenomenon. One of these alternatives

certainly ignores the other alternatives, which are

then called the level of analysis. The level of

analysis explains the phenomenon in a certain

sphere, ignoring the other levels to provide a focused

and comprehensive explanation of a phenomenon.

One of the level of analysis used to analyze a

country’s foreign policy is national attributes.

National attributes usually consist of elements that

become the strength of the nation state, i.e. natural

resources, geography, population characteristics,

size and so on (Hudson, 2014). These attributes are

usually relative in explaining changes in a country’s

foreign policy. The first national attribute is size.

Size can affect a country’s goals as well as decision-

making processes. For example, a small country

located between two major conflicting states tends to

decide to be neutral to both. Small countries have no

power to provide aid or against other countries, so in

international relations, small countries tend to act

diplomatically and persuasively. While the country’s

greater activity is more intense in foreign policy.

Major countries tend to be assertive in foreign policy

given their enormous capability.

The next attribute is the natural resources.

Natural resources owned by a country, or lack of

natural resources can affect a country’s foreign

policy. For example China in need of energy decides

to become a supporter of countries whose oil

resources have not been contracted by the UN

Security Council (Hudson, 2014). It also makes

China at odds with Japan-regarding pipelines

connecting Russian natural gas to the south. In

addition to natural gas, minerals also affect foreign

policy. United States then did not want to reject the

white regime in South Africa during the Cold War

because South Africa has several important minerals

needed in the construction of technology other than

Russia. In addition, fertile soils and agricultural

capabilities are also influential in foreign policy

making. Countries with this capability are the goal

of large countries that lack fertile land and

agricultural capabilities to forcibly take over their

territory. Today, however, large countries tend to

rent or buy fertile soil to provide for food they can’t

afford alone. Geographic attributes also relate to

natural resources. Yet the physical position of the

state significantly influences foreign policy such as a

state with many restrictions often experiencing

conflicts, and how landlocked states seek to gain

access to the ocean by cooperation.

Furthermore, demographic characteristics also

have an influence in determining foreign policy.

Countries with populations tend to experience lateral

pressure, which means the country is depressed to

meet the needs of their citizens without the pressure

to obtain these natural resources from abroad

through trade, migration, colonization or conflict

(Hudson, 2014). The issue of migration from

countries with high population growth rates to low-

growth countries dominates domestic politics in the

shadow of developing countries with clear foreign

policy consequences. In addition to population

growth rates, other variables such as population

distribution, gender distribution,

ethnic/linguistic/religious distribution of total

population, education and health also affect foreign

policy. China and India have the same total

population, but China is seen as more advanced

because it has a higher life expectancy while India

has malnutrition problems in the country.

The next attribute is the political system. For

example is the concept of peace of democracy.

Observation proves that a country with a democratic

political system will not attack other democratic

countries (Hudson, 2014). There are many

explanations for this peace of democracy. One of

them is transparency, which is the value of

democracy that able to increase empathy among

democracies. There is a common cultural view in a

democratic society that prevents the emergence of

conflicts, also because of the recognition of women

who encourage the existence of a democratic peace.

However, the author prove that there is no impact of

the number of conflicts between democratic and

Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Analysis on China’s OBOR Policy in the National Attributes Level of Analysis

517

non-democratic countries. Democratic attack non-

democratic and vice versa too.

3 INDONESIA’S FOREIGN

POLICY ANALYSIS USING

NATIONAL ATTRIBUTES

LEVEL OF ANALYSIS OF

CHINA’S OBOR POLICY

Indonesia is one of the countries involved in the

development map of this OBOR trading line. China

then offers various partnerships with Indonesia to

succeed in this development plan, including the

Jakarta-Bandung rapid train project to promote the

advanced technology sector as China’s technical

development standard. China got the right to build a

142-kilometer-long railway line, connecting the

Indonesian capital to Bandung, West Java after

winning a bidding war with Japan (Cai, 2017).

China was then able to win the offer by offering

financial assistance to the project. To win this

negotiation, Xi Jinping sends Xu Saoshi directly to

Jakarta.

The construction of the Jakarta-Bandung rapid

train line shows how Indonesia supports China’s

foreign policy, OBOR. China is trying to negotiate

the development as best as possible to win it from

Japan’s offer towards Indonesia. There is a

particular reason why Indonesia approved the

Chinese offer and supported it by approving the

construction of the fast train line. Indonesia’s

foreign policy is certainly influenced by various

levels of analysis, the author will try to identify

Indonesia’s foreign policy from the national

attributes level of analysis.

The first attribute is size. Indonesia is a country

consisting of five large islands and about 13,677

small islands (about 6,000 of them inhabited),

forming a bow between Asia and Australia. With a

total area of 1,919,440 square kilometers, Indonesia

is the fourth largest country in Asia after China,

India and Arabia (Nations encyclopedia, tt). The five

main islands of Indonesia are Sumatra, Java,

Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya. Indonesia also

has land boundaries with Malaysia on the island of

Borneo, with Papua New Guinea in eastern Irian

Jaya and East Timor. The Indonesian Sea Region

also includes the South China Sea, the Pacific Sea

and the Indian Ocean. Based on this data, we can see

how Indonesia, by size, is smaller than China itself.

China has an area of 9,596,960 square kilometers

(Nations encyclopedia, tt).

East (1973) states that the country can be

categorized as small in size because it has a small

land area, has a small total population, has a small

total GNP and has little military capability.

However, in size analysis, Indonesia is not a small

country in its relation to the international world. Its

relationship with China in terms of size makes

Indonesia smaller than China itself. Small countries,

according to alternative models, have low risk

habits, more cautious in their international relations.

Because of their smaller size, which relatively

indicates fewer resources, smaller countries tend to

seek interaction methods with other countries that

are not costly and economically viable (East, 1973).

Indonesia then accepted China’s OBOR policy of

providing Chinese financially and conducting

development according to Chinese standards,

including its workforce. This is one of the reasons

why Indonesia accepted China’s OBOR policy. In

addition, Hudson (2014) also explains how small

countries are usually unable to provide assistance or

challenge larger country. This is also in line with

Indonesia’s actions towards China’s OBOR policy.

However, apart from its relationship with China,

Indonesia can’t be classified as a small country.

Indonesia has the highest economy in Southeast

Asia. Although still in the stage of developing

countries, Indonesia is considered middle powers

considering the potential of resources and the

maritime. In terms of size, the middle power in

foreign policy making has limited influence in

determining the distribution of forces, has the

potential to change the position of great power and

tend to maintain its position (Chapnick, 1999 in

Dong-min, 2016). In the case of OBOR, Indonesia is

considered a middle power country that has the

potential to change the position of great power. In

this case, China with its economic policy is certainly

one of China’s efforts to strengthen its country.

Indonesia then took the opportunity to participate in

China’s OBOR policy for the future to have the

potential to change China’s position and maintain its

position, in accordance with the assumption as

middle-powers country.

The next attribute is the natural resources.

Indonesia is a country that famous for its various

natural resources. Nevertheless, Indonesia began to

show oil shortage in 2008 that previously can be

self-fulfilled and ended with Indonesia’s decision to

exit from OPEC. In 2015, Indonesia tries to re-enter

OPEC but still can’t meet the output set by OPEC.

According to ESDM Strategic Plan 2015-2019,

Indonesia’s oil production reached 1,600.00 barrels

per day in 1995, twice the current amount of oil

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

518

production in Indonesia (Martawardaya, 2017). This

scarcity of natural resources is getting worse as

Indonesia’s fuel consumption also increases, from

62.1 million liters in 2007 to 75, 1 million liters in

2016, an increase of 21%. Car sales in Indonesia in

recent years also increased by about one million

units and motorcycle sales increased by about five to

six million units, signaling an increasing demand for

fuel. The offer given by China in its policy

application to Indonesia then became one of the

answers to this resource issue. Dwiastuti (2016)

explains that one of Indonesia’s advantages over its

involvement in OBOR policy is the presence of

FDI’s potential from China in the fields of textiles,

bioenergy, petrochemicals, agricultural industries

and other investments. Furthermore, China has also

invested in oil and gas in Indonesia. PetroChina, a

Chinese energy company, has several oil and gas

blocks in several regions throughout Indonesia (Carl,

2016). Considering the seriousness of energy

problem in Indonesia, Indonesia then accepted the

investment offer of infrastructure development from

China, so the cooperation of the two countries in all

fields, especially in the field of natural resources,

keeps going well in the future.

If we look at the map of the development of the

21st Century Maritime Silk Road trade line,

Indonesia is included in this trade route (Cai, 2017).

This indicated that Indonesia is badly needed by

China for its geographical location. Indonesia itself,

based on geographical location, is a country flanked

by two oceans, the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean,

and directly adjacent to the South China Sea in the

north. This makes Indonesia as a maritime country

and added with the maritime policy of President

Jokowi this year to make Indonesia increasingly

vigorous in increasing its maritime power. For

Indonesia, China as the country that has the greatest

claim over the ownership of the South China Sea is

certainly important for maritime development of

Indonesia. The offer given by China to Indonesia

will certainly strengthen the relationship between the

two countries, including assistance for Indonesia in

increasing its maritime power. In addition, it is a

distinct advantage for Indonesia in terms of

geographical location to include in the China’s 21st

Century Maritime Silk Road because it will bring a

positive impact for Indonesian economy.

Regarding the next attribute,. demography, the

author assume that this policy is not related to the

demographic arrangement between the two

countries, especially the Indonesian state which is

the main focus of this paper. Hudson (2014)

mentions there are four major demographic issues

affecting foreign policy. First is the birth rate and

migration policy. High birth rates will affect foreign

policy such as Yellow Peril Australia and Russia.

Migration issues such as the brain drain

phenomenon, for example, in Afghanistan have

made the government try to keep people from

migrating to other countries. The second is the

gender distribution. China which has an unequal

gender distribution in its demographic composition

and then seeks to recruit its citizens into the military

to be deployed on the battlefield as an effort to

reduce the number of male citizens. Third, the issue

of diseases such as HIV also affect the foreign

policy of a country such as the case in Botswana and

Thailand. Fourth, migration outflows and human

trafficking also affect foreign policy, as Philippine

actions limit the export of nurses from the

Philippines. These things then have no correlation to

China’s OBOR policy which focuses more on

improving the economy, development and

enhancement of international trade.

The next aspect of national attribute is the

political system. The author has mentioned before

how political system aspect such as democracy

influence foreign policy. Indonesia is a democracy.

This can be seen from the life of Indonesian politics

itself. Indonesia conducts elections every five years

to elect its president. Indonesia has the people’s

representatives in the seat of government, in charge

of delivering the people’s voice to the government.

Several types of democracy have been applied in

Indonesia, including liberal democracy,

parliamentary democracy and Pancasila democracy,

stating that Indonesia seeks to always implement

democratic values suitable for its people (Khairazi,

2015). Indonesia always views democracy as the

best political system. But on the other hand, China

can’t be classified as a democracy. The Communist

Party still dominates the Chinese political system,

although China itself has tried to apply the values of

democracy. The development of China’s democratic

model is still unstable and still encounters many

challenges. This is based on China’s desire to adapt

its country to the modernization process to maintain

social stability, protect citizens’ rights and promote

good governance of the Chinese government

internationally (Keping, t.t.). China is previously a

closed state, has undergone a revolution and has

become very open with various cooperation.

Indonesia has long established cooperation with

China, which means that it no longer necessary to

questions Indonesia’s democracy. In the other hand,

China until now still controlled by the communist

party despite starting to apply the values of

Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Analysis on China’s OBOR Policy in the National Attributes Level of Analysis

519

democracy in the country. This is then in line with

the democratic peace assumption that democratic

countries tend to cooperate.

Hudson (2014) also mentioned that the influence

of military capability in foreign policy can be seen

from countries with high military capabilities that

tend to apply coercive diplomacy. Then, an analysis

of the coercive diplomacy of a country comes up

with an explanation of how much military

capability, how much military influence it has in

foreign policy-making and whether its military

capability is followed by the country’s economic

capacity and size. In this case study, the policies

issued by China are not at all aggressive. China even

provides financial investment assistance,

technology, manpower, energy resources and

various other assistance in the implementation of

this policy which is totally opposite to coercive

diplomacy. The author conclude that the aspect of

national attributes of military capability is irrelevant

in analyzing the Chinese foreign policy from

Indonesia’s perspective.

The next attribute is economic capability. Some

observers of Indonesia’s economy stated that

Indonesia’s recovery to the Asian crisis was

pleasant. This is due to internal problems, such as

political instability, terrorism issues, deterioration of

infrastructure and legislation. These matters caused

the slowness inflow of FDI to Indonesia. In 2009,

Indonesia’s sales value fell drastically, due to global

price declines and demand (Booth, 2011). In the

same year, China became the second largest country

after Japan for Indonesia. However, this export value

is also involved with Indonesian imports from

China. In 2010, Indonesia’s import value from China

has exceeded import value from Singapore and

Japan. Recent developments say, Indonesia still has

a great dependence on imported raw materials from

China. BPS data dated June 15, 2015 states that the

trade deficit between Indonesia and China reached

US $ 5.89 billion (Sari, 2017). Imports of consumer

goods, raw materials and capital goods in Indonesia

at 2017 increased by 17.63% when compared with

the import of consumer goods in 2016. China

controls more than 25% of total imported goods into

Indonesia. Imports from China, machinery and

equipment, iron and steel as well as organic

chemicals. The data explains how the Indonesian

economy depends on China’s economy. This is

based on Hudson (2014) argument which states that

the ordinary dependent economy is characterized by

Freedom on the export of one or more specific

commodities from a particular country. Trade

dependence can be done using dependent countries.

Indonesia, which then uses the data above, is still

dependent on China, depending on Indonesia’s high

economic dependence on China.

Military capabilities have an impact on foreign

policy making. Countries with good military

capabilities tend to practice coercive diplomacy as a

form of foreign policy (Hudson, 2014). Speaking of

military capability, weapons of mass destruction are

becoming a topic that often discussed nowadays.

Today, although weapons of mass destruction are

own only by certain countries, almost all countries

can build such weapons and chemical weapons are

not so strategic if the two conflicting countries share

the same weapons. Countries with nuclear weapons

are then taken into account in terms of military and

diplomacy, even though the country is poor, like

North Korea. The relative size of the influence of a

country’s military capability then needs to be

analyzed in its foreign policy decision-making

process. The authoritative regime is almost entirely

dependent on their great military capability to

maintain their power, and their views are prioritized

on the military from another view.

Economic capability also determines the foreign

policy of a country. A country’s economic

dependence on other countries must shape its foreign

policy. This is characterized through their belief in

the export of certain commodities in which the

country will not experience the economic

development of the exports (Hudson, 2014). In

addition, the global economy also introduces new

problems between economic relations and

international relations. For example, United States is

the largest debtor country in the world and they

overcome it with Treasury bills. The country that

holds the largest treasury bills is China, which

makes Americans always worried whether China

will keep buying T-bills on the same level or one

day will ignore these T-bills.

4 CONCLUSION

Based on the above explanation, it can be seen that

the national attributes level of analysis able to

explain why Indonesia took such policy. The above

explanation show that not all aspects in the level of

national attribute analysis are related to Indonesian

policy. But some aspects have significant relevance,

explaining why Indonesia is taking such action. It

should be emphasized that the explanation of of

national attributes level of analysis of foreign policy

is relative, depending on existing country policies,

aspects, and circumstances.

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

520

Because Indonesia located in one of the trade

routes in China’s OBOR planning, the two countries

consider each other important. Indonesia for China

is important because China’s planned trade route

involves Indonesia directly. China for Indonesia is

important because the involvement of Indonesia in

that path will bring good opportunities for the

Indonesian economy in the future. China’s bid to

build the Jakarta-Bandung railway line also refers to

Indonesia’s economic capabilities directly. The

construction of the fast train line is funded by China,

including its workforce. Based on data above

Indonesia that still needs financial assistance,

technology, natural resources will certainly approve

the Chinese offer. Various Chinese investment in

Indonesia also many in quantities. Indonesia then

seeks to build good relations with China because

Chinese investment in Indonesia is very profitable

for Indonesia.

In addition, Indonesia’s economic dependence on

China is also very high. This explains how China

became an important economic partner for

Indonesia. Of course, any economic cooperation

becomes very important for Indonesia. Especially

considering Indonesia’s import balance from China

is still quite high. According to the authors, the

political system as a national attribute has no

significant influence in this policy. Both countries

have built long-standing cooperation and for

Indonesia, the power of the communist party in

China is not an obstacle for cooperation between the

two countries.

Other attributes such as demographics and

military capabilities, according to the author, have

no relevance to this policy. China’s OBOR policy is

more to economic development, does not involve

demographic issues, especially Indonesia. In the

other hand, military capability becomes relevant to

policy if the policy is in the form of coercive

diplomacy or other aggressive form of policy. The

China’s OBOR policy does not show an aggressive

attitude at all.

Through this national attributes analysis, China is

an important partner for Indonesia. Seeing Indonesia

as a middle power country, Indonesia has potential in

determining the power of China which is considered

as a great power. Cooperation is both considered to

benefit each other, although there is an unbalanced

economic and investment dependence on both

countries. According to the authors, the economy,

including the potential of natural resources, is the

most significant factor affecting Indonesian policy in

this case. By accepting China’s investment offer,

Indonesia expects a long-term economic

development through such investment as well

through the development of the overall trade route.

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