From Diplomatic Severance To Reestablishment

As a leading power in Southeastern Asia, Indonesia possesses critical strategic position inside the region. The study of the changes of its diplomatic strategy can give us crucial entry points for exploring both the domestic issues of Indonesia and the wider issues in Southeast Asia.China is one of the vicinities of Indonesia. The two countries have been sharing a long and peaceful history. Indonesia was the country that initially established its official diplomatic relationship with China in ASEAN; however, the mutual tie of both countries doesn't always go smoothly. What's more worth worrying is that the two big powers hadn't connected by diplomatic interactions with each other for more than 23 years especially after Suharto's regime. In this article I principally choose the historic period from the severance to reestablishment of the diplomatic relationships between Indonesia and China for my study's time span. Analyzing the Suharto's policy toward China and the development of the mutual relationships, I will focus on Indonesian policy decision strategies toward China in the New Order era.The domestic power conflicts stirred by main political powers in Indonesia are the sources that put much effect on the shape of the diplomatic policy's decision mechanism in the country. The shifts of the politic structure in Indonesia have deep impacts on the decision process of its diplomatic strategy. Therefore, this article will mainly analyze the nuclear Suharto government as well as its interaction with both the country's military forces and interest groups, as a result clearer clues on the changes of Indonesian diplomatic policies' decision strategy may reveal.This article holds a basically solid view that the conflicts among different politic powers inside Indonesia serve the source its diplomatic policy's decision strategies against China under the New Order era. The conflicts are based on the core leadership of Indonesian president and standing shoulder by shoulder with the balance of Indonesian military forces.