Indonesia had a strong anti-China policy in the 1960s due to China's backing of the Communist Party of Indonesia against the government. The two countries had no diplomatic relations from 1967 till 1990. Now, however, Indonesia has close military, political and diplomatic ties with China.

China has a very straightforward rationale in pursuing this relationship: Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia and has a population of more than 240 million. It is also the most populous Muslim nation in the world and a traditional ally of the United States over the past 40 years. Therefore, aside from its natural gas and oil reserves, diplomatically, winning over Indonesia was the key to engaging other nations in the region.

In terms of military equipment and technology, Indonesia has become the third-largest client of China-made C-802 surface-to-surface missiles and QW-1 surface-to-air missiles in Southeast Asia, after Thailand and Myanmar. The Indonesian air force was the first among the armed forces of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to purchase China's QW-3 surface-to-air missiles.

The political and military rapprochement of China and Indonesia was aided by the fact that the United States restricted arms sales to Indonesia throughout the 1990s over human rights concerns. This became a full U.S. arms embargo from 1999 to 2006, in response to Indonesian actions in Timor-Leste.

Indonesia therefore looked to China for military hardware. At present, although the U.S. arms embargo has been lifted, Indonesia is still wary of the United States. Therefore, the Indonesian air force has turned to Russia and China for equipment procurement.

In an exclusive interview with United Press International, a senior Indonesian air force official confided that the force had no plans to upgrade its aging U.S.-made F-16A/B fighters, which are currently in service, despite U.S. reports that it would do so.

Unlike the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, who are also members of the ASEAN grouping, Indonesia has no territorial disputes with China over islands in the South China Sea. There has never been any open argument between the two countries over sovereignty.

In recent years, China has taken a number of steps to build trust with Indonesia through high-level political visits between the two countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Indonesia in 2005; it was during that visit that the two countries declared the establishment of a "strategic partnership."

Since then, there have been frequent military contacts between the two sides. In 2006, Zhang Yunshen, assistant to the chief of staff of China's People's Liberation Army, visited Indonesia. In 2007, a Chinese naval delegation and warship formation paid a visit.

Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Cao Gangchuan visited the country twice, in January 2007 and January 2008. During the second visit, the two sides signed a defense-cooperation agreement. Following this agreement, China exported a second batch of C-802 surface-to-surface missiles and QW-3 surface-to-air missiles to Indonesia.

(Andrei Chang is editor in chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly, registered in Toronto.)

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