Title: The harmless mighty dragon: China public diplomacy for Belt and Road Initiative in Indonesia

Authors: Bima Jon Nanda; Inda Mustika Permata

Addresses: Department of Asia Pacific Regional Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Shoufeng, Hualien, Taiwan ' Department of International Relations, Universitas Andalas, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract: China's public diplomacy in Indonesia will benefit various Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects since the main obstacle to BRI projects in Indonesia is the negative image of China as communist, aggressive and anti-Islam by the Indonesian public. This article explores various Chinese government Public Diplomacy in Indonesia. They explained using Cull Public Diplomacy Taxonomy, which is listening, advocacy, cultural and exchange diplomacy and broadcasting. This article argues that the Chinese government uses ASEAN-China Think Tanks (NACT) as a listening approach to their public diplomacy. At the same time, it could also be utilised as an advocacy approach to their public diplomacy. China uses its Confucius Institute for cultural diplomacy. China approached influential Muslim organisations' representatives in Indonesia and invited them to visit China to eliminate the anti-Islamic image from China as their exchange diplomacy. China also cooperates with Indonesian news media to combat the anti-Islam image of China.

Keywords: China; Indonesia; Belt and Road Initiative; public diplomacy; negative image.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDIPE.2024.142536

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, 2024 Vol.10 No.2, pp.185 - 200

Received: 09 Jun 2023
Accepted: 23 Sep 2023
Published online: 08 Nov 2024 *

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