I. Political
Relations
China and Indonesia
established diplomatic relations on 13 April 1950, which was
suspended on 30 October 1967 due to the occurrence of the
"November 30 event" of 1965.
The
bilateral relations began to ease since 1980s. Foreign
Minister Qian Qichen of China met respectively with
President Soharto and State Minister Moerdiono of Indonesia
in 1989 to discuss the resumption of diplomatic relations of
the two countries. In December 1989, the two sides held
talks on the technical issues regarding the normalization of
bilateral relations and signed the Minutes. Foreign Minister
Ali Alatas of Indonesia visited China on invitation in July
1990 and the two sides issued the Agreement on the
Settlement of Indonesia's Debt Obligation to China and the
Communique on the Resumption of Diplomatic Relations between
the two countries. The two countries issued the
"Communiqué on the Restoration of Diplomatic
Relations between the Two
Countries".
Premier Li Peng visited
Indonesia on invitation in August 6, 1990. In his talks with
President Soharto, the two sides expressed their willingness
to improve and develop the friendly relations and
cooperation between the two countries in the spirit of
looking forward and on the basis of the Five Principles of
Peaceful Co-Existence and the Ten Principles of Bandung
Conference. On 8 August, Foreign Ministers of China and
Indonesia on behalf of their respective governments, signed
the Memorandum of Understanding on the Resumption of
Diplomatic Relations. The two sides declared the formal
resumption of the diplomatic relations between China and
Indonesia on that day.
The bilateral relations
developed steadily since the resumption of diplomatic
relations of the two countries. The leaders of the two sides
have maintained exchange of visits and contacts. As a
result, mutual understanding and trust had been increasing,
laying the foundation for the healthy and steady development
of bilateral relations. The two Ministries of Foreign
Affairs set up a consultative mechanism and have held 5
rounds of consultations by 1999. The recent years have
witnessed the constant deepening of economic and trade
cooperation and increase of the trade volume year by year.
Exchanges and cooperation in other fields are under way.
China and Indonesia have maintained good coordination and
cooperation in international and regional affairs. Some of
the issues between the two countries left over by history
are starting to be solved.
Since the resumption
of diplomatic ties between the two countries, President Yang
Shangkun (in 1991), Chairman of NPC Standing
Committee Qiao Shi (in 1993) and Vice Premier
Zhu Rongji (in 1996), Vice President Hu Jintao
(in 2000) of China visited Indonesia. President
Soharto(in 1990), Speaker of Parliament
Suhud(in 1991), Vice President
Sudarmono(in 1992) and Chairman of the Supreme
Advisory Council Sudomo(in 1997) visited
China. President Jiang Zemin of China paid a state visit to
Indonesia in November 1994 after he attended the second APEC
Leaders' Informal Meeting. In December 1999, President K.H.
Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia paid a state visit to China,
during which the two countries issued a joint press
communiqué. In July 2000, Vice President Hu Jintao
visited Indonesia at the invitation of Vice President
Megawati.
In November 2001, Premier Zhu Rongji
paid a visit to Indonesia. In March 2002, Indonesian
President Megawati Sukarnoputri paid a state visit to China.
In April, President Abdurrahman Wahid of the Indonesian
People's Consultative Assembly visited China. In September,
Chairman Li Peng of the NPC paid an official friendly visit
to Indonesia.
Starting from 1991, the foreign
ministries of the two countries set up a consultation
mechanism and up to now it has held six times of
consultation. In March 2002, the two countries exchanged
notes in regard with the setup of Indonesian consulates
general in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Indonesia has its
Consulate-General in Hong Kong.
II.
Economic and Trade Relations and Technological
Cooperation
The foreign trade and
economic cooperation of the two countries witnessed a smooth
development. After of restoration of the diplomatic
relations the two countries have signed the "Air
Transport Agreement", "Investment Protection
Agreement", "Sea Transportation Agreement",
"Agreement on Avoiding Dual Taxation" and also
signed the memorandum for understanding of cooperation in
the fields of mining, forestry, tourism, fishery,
transportation, agriculture and finance, etc. In 1990, the
two countries set up a joint committee for economic, trade
and technological cooperation and so far it has held five
meetings for it. In March 2002, an energy forum was put up
and held the first meeting in September of the
year.
Bilateral trade volume has risen very
quickly since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties,
from 1.18 billion US$ in 1990 to 7.464 billion in 2000. In
2001, the bilateral trade volume slided down a little bit,
telling USD 6.725 billion due to the global economic
slowdown and the first half of 2002 accounted for USD 3.6
billion, an increase of 5.7 percent compared with the
corresponding period of the previous year. China is the 5th
trade partner of Indonesia while Indonesia the 17th of
China. By the end of 2001, agriculture, energy, exploration
of resources and infrastructure construction had become the
major parts of their economic and trade
cooperation.
Dual directional investment has
been gradually developed. Up to the 2001, the approved
investment by Indonesia in China came to 841 items with an
agreed investment valued at 1.7 billion in US dollars. China
set up 53 non-trade joint ventures and jointly-operated
enterprises in Indonesia with a total investment of 161
million in US dollars. By the end of 2001, the two sides
reached a consensus on Bank of China reopening its branch in
Jakarta.
III. Exchanges and
Cooperation in Cultural, Scientific and Technological and
Military Fields
The exchanges and
cooperation in such various fields as culture, science and
technology, education, health, military affairs, religion,
tourism, communication, agriculture and forestry between
China and Indonesia have been further developed after the
resumption of their diplomatic ties. The two sides signed a
series of documents for strengthening the friendly exchanges
and cooperation in the above-mentioned fields. The Agreement
Relating to the Scheduled Air Transport was signed in
January 1991. Air China, China South Airlines and Garuda
Indonesian airlines opened direct flights between the two
countries. The Ministry of Radio, Film and Television of
China and the Ministry of Information of Indonesia signed a
MOU on information cooperation in January 1992. Xinhua News
Agency of China and Antara Press of Indonesia set up their
branch offices respectively in Jakarta and Beijing according
to the relevant articles of the MOU. The two sides started
the programme of student exchange in 1994. The
Indonesia-China Association of Economic, Social and Cultural
Cooperation was founded in July 1992, and the
China-Indonesia Association of Economic and Cultural
Cooperation was founded in August 1993. The two associations
signed a MOU on cooperation. In addition, the two sides
signed a MOU on promotion of cooperation in tourism, and
MOUs on health and sports cooperation. In July 2000, the two
countries signed an agreement on mutually granting judicial
assistance to each other. In 1997, the two countries set up
a joint committee for scientific and technological
cooperation and so far it had two meetings held. An
"Agreement on Conducting Chinese Examination in
Indonesia" was signed in May 2000. In September 2000,
China approved Indonesia to be a destination for the
outbound tour of Chinese citizens. In November 2001, the
"Agreement for Cultural Cooperation" was signed
once again.
Cooperation between local
governments came to be vigorous. Beijing built up ties of
friendship cities with Jakarta, the Indonesian capital city
and letters of intent have been reached for establishing
friendship relation at provincial level between East Java
and Shanghai, Guangdong Province and North Sumatra, Fujian
Province with Central Java and Hunan Province with West
Nusatenggara.
IV. Other Issues
There are about 7 million
Indonesians of Chinese origin and a certain number of
Chinese nationals residing in Indonesia. The issue of
Chinese Indonesians and overseas Chinese in Indonesia
remains sensitive in bilateral relations due to various
reasons. The Chinese government made representations and
expressed its concern over the violence against Chinese in
the turmoil taking place in Indonesia in May 1998 and
requested the Indonesian government to make thorough
investigation on the incidents and take effective measures
to protect the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic
Chinese in Indonesia. The Chinese in Indonesia: in recent
years, the Indonesian government has by and by adopted some
measures by abrogating some policies for restricting and
discriminating the Chinese there and they are now living in
a somewhat improved condition.
V.
Other Major Bilateral Agreements and
Documents
In May 2000, Foreign
Minister Tang Jiaxuan and visiting Indonesian Foreign
Minister Alwi Shihab signed a joint statement on the
direction of the development of bilateral relations in the
future and a memorandum of understanding about putting in
place a joint committee on bilateral cooperation.
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