Source: Yuyuan Tan Tian
These days, Beijing, ushered in an old friend.
From July 25 to 26, at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited China. After the talks, the two sides issued a joint press statement on the meeting between the two heads of state. Among them, there is such a sentence:
The two heads of state believe that China-Indonesia relations have great strategic significance and far-reaching global impact, and agree to establish the general direction of jointly building a community of common destiny between China and Indonesia.
This is the most important political outcome of President Jokowi's visit. This is both a consensus at the level of the two heads of state and a model for interaction between major developing countries around the world.
How the relationship between fate and commonality has been achieved, and what kind of profound connotation, runs through the words of this joint press statement.
The joint press statement mentions:
Indonesia wishes the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China a complete success and leads China toward the second centenary goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way. China wishes Indonesia a smooth journey towards the goal of becoming a developed country by 2045.
The two heads of state tacitly wish each other the realization of their medium- and long-term national strategic goals. This tacit understanding stems from the frequent interaction between the two heads of state.
In November 2014, less than a month into indonesia's presidency, JokoWi left for Beijing for the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Before the meeting, President Xi Jinping met with President Joko Widodo.
At that time, President Xi Jinping mentioned, "President Jokowi's concept of building a maritime power is highly consistent with my initiative to build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and our two sides can dock development strategies." ”
The ideas are the same, and Chinese will generally use one word to describe such a relationship - confidant.
In fact, as early as 2013, Xi Jinping visited Southeast Asian countries for the first time after being elected president, and the first stop was in Indonesia. In a speech at the Indonesian Parliament, President Xi Jinping used the phrase "Confidant in the sea, if the end of the world is close to each other", as a footnote to the exchanges between China and Indonesia.
Xu Liping, a researcher at the Academy of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Tan that when President Jokowi attended the informal meeting of APEC leaders, President Xi Jinping had an exchange with President JokoWi, which mentioned promoting infrastructure construction. Under President JokoWi, Indonesia's infrastructure development has developed significantly.
Zhihe is enough to cross mountains and seas.
More than four months later, in March 2015, President JokoWiz came to China for a state visit and attended the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2015. In his talks with President Xi Jinping, President JokoWisen said that he looked forward to President Xi Jinping's attendance at the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.
President Xi Jinping traveled to Indonesia a month later for the appointment. At the invitation of President Joko Widodo, President Xi Jinping was the first to step onto the podium and speak at the plenary session of the Asian-African Leaders' Meeting.
It is rare for the two heads of state to exchange visits so frequently. Since taking office, President JokoWi has visited or come to China five times to attend the meeting, and President Xi Jinping has met with him 8 times. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, President Xi Jinping had six more telephone conversations with President JokoWi.
At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the visit to China made President JokoWiss the first foreign head of state received by China after the Beijing Winter Olympics. The weight of this invitation is not ordinary.
President Jokowi's visit to China has achieved heavy political results - agreeing to establish the general direction of jointly building a community with a shared future between China and Indonesia.
As early as 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed to build a community with a shared future for mankind, and there have been some cases in China's neighbors, especially in ASEAN countries – China has signed an action plan for building a community of shared future with Cambodia and Laos.
Indonesia's consensus with China this time has become the first maritime country among ASEAN countries to build a community of common destiny with China. The leap from land to sea has deepened the concept of a community of common destiny in the Asia-Pacific region.
The concept of a community of common destiny is the essence of Xi Jinping's diplomatic thought, and the understanding and recognition of each other's ideas is the high-level realm of interaction, which is enough to reflect the role of head of state diplomacy in leading the rudder in national exchanges.
With the course, the great ship with the common destiny of China and Indonesia can chop the waves.
During the talks, President Xi Jinping summed up the fate of China and Indonesia in four sentences:
The stages of development are similar
Common interests are linked
The ideas are connected
The future is at stake
China and Indonesia, as the world's largest and third largest developing countries, historically, China and Indonesia have had common experiences of resisting colonialism and aggression; In reality, there is also the dream of realizing a strong country through industrialization and modernization.
Similar experiences and the same frequency of development process, at present, the two countries also have similar governance strategies.
Poverty reduction is one of them.
The joint press statement mentions:
The two sides will expand cooperation in financing for development and strengthen cooperation in agriculture, poverty reduction and food security.
As the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia still has more than 20 million poor people.
In his State of the Union address, President Jokowi pledged that the government would strive to make the country's development and social justice accessible to all Indonesians, as well as a sense of pride as An Indonesian, including those living in remote areas.
Development is for the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, which is also the concept and policy that China has always adhered to.
Since 2013, poverty alleviation has been placed in a prominent position in governance, and China's poverty alleviation battle has enabled all 98.99 million rural poor people to get rid of poverty under the current standards. In February 2021, President Xi Jinping solemnly declared that the mainland has won a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.
Just over a month later, President Xi Jinping spoke with President Joko Widodo, who congratulated China on its great achievements in poverty alleviation and economic development, and made positive contributions to the development of regional countries, including Indonesia. He also said that Indonesia hopes to learn from China's relevant experience.
Dealing with poverty is just a microcosm of the like-mindedness of China and Indonesia.
Just as "poverty alleviation is not the end, but the starting point of a new life and a new struggle", under the premise of comprehensive poverty alleviation, agricultural development and food security have a more solid foundation.
In January this year, during a phone call with President Joko Widodo, President Xi Jinping mentioned that China and Indonesia are like-minded on the road of seeking development for the country and happiness for the people.
The beginnings of like-mindedness can be traced back more than half a century.
In 1955, in order to promote the establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic order, government delegations from 29 Asian and African countries and regions held the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. The conference opened a new chapter in the unity and cooperation of developing countries, the struggle for national independence and the pursuit of economic development.
The Bandung spirit of advocating peaceful coexistence and seeking common ground while reserving differences put forward at the meeting has become the norm for cooperation and development of developing countries, which has continued to this day.
The joint press statement mentions:
The two sides will deepen high-quality cooperation in jointly building the "Belt and Road" and the "Global Marine Fulcrum", complete the primary flagship project of the Yawan high-speed railway as scheduled, and create new flagship projects such as the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor" and the "Two Countries Double Park".
In 2014, after Jokowi took office, he put forward the concept of "global marine fulcrum", and Indonesia should be revived as a maritime civilization power.
This coincides with China's Belt and Road Initiative. In 2013, it was in Indonesia that President Xi Jinping first proposed the initiative of jointly building a 21st century "Maritime Silk Road", planning a magnificent path facing the Pacific and Indian Oceans and connecting the major economic sectors of Asia, Africa and Europe.
From the perspective of the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia has obvious location advantages - Indonesia is located at the intersection of the Pacific ocean and the Indian Ocean, Asia and Oceania. However, from the perspective of Indonesia, as a maritime country, due to the excessive dispersion of the terrain, the domestic connection has long faced the problems of weak infrastructure and poor transportation, which is also a constraint on Indonesia's economic development.
In 2014, according to a World Bank report, Indonesia's logistics performance index ranked only 50 outside the world, lagging behind many countries in the region, such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
The disadvantage that Indonesia wants to make up for happens to be China's strength. Infrastructure has become a leading area for cooperation between China and Indonesia, and the Yawan high-speed railway has become the primary flagship project of cooperation between the two countries.
The Yawan high-speed railway connects Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, with Bandung, the fourth largest city, with a total length of 142 kilometers and a maximum design speed of 350 kilometers per hour. When completed, the travel time can be reduced from the current 3 hours to 40 minutes.
As the first export of the mainland's high-speed rail as a whole, the 38,100 tons of steel rail required for the Yawan high-speed rail project are all produced by China and transported to Indonesia through the operation of the rail-sea connection
Xiao Songxin, director of the Indonesian China High-Speed Railway Company (KCIC), told Tan that the manufacture of EMUs in the three major sections of the Yawan high-speed rail project has been completed, the civil engineering has been completed more than 90%, and the follow-up projects such as housing construction, track laying, and power electrification are under intense construction. The overall progress of the project has reached about 84%.
For Indonesia, high-speed rail is not only a means of transportation, but also an important means of stimulating economic growth. After the completion of the Yawan high-speed railway, it will not only improve the convenience of transportation, but also make the efficiency of logistics transportation and personnel exchanges between the two cities higher, and promote the connection between the two cities. More importantly, the Yawan high-speed railway also passes through many industrial parks, and the opening of the high-speed rail will also drive the upgrading of the industrial belt along the line.
The role of this high-speed rail line in promoting indonesia's economy is not limited to this - the completion of the Yawan high-speed rail will make Indonesia the first Southeast Asian country to have a high-speed rail system, which will undoubtedly be an attraction in the eyes of foreign investors.
In Indonesia's view, the Yawan high-speed railway is a symbol of Indonesia's rapid development.
At the same time as the construction of the Yawan high-speed railway, new flagship projects such as "Two Countries And Double Parks" are also advancing simultaneously. "Two countries and two parks" is a new model of economic and trade innovation and development between China and Indonesia. The Chinese side's "one garden" was selected in the Yuanhong Investment Zone in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province.
Fuzhou New District Fuqing Functional Zone Economic Prescription Renhao told Tan that Indonesia's maritime resources are very rich, the food industry in the park is relatively developed, Indonesia's fish "walked in", after deep processing, not only to meet the needs of the domestic market, but also to help Fujian food enterprises "go out".
At present, the park has built a fishery center in Indonesia, and the existing base was put into operation in March this year, with an annual output of 500,000 tons, and it is planned to build 9 more fishing bases in the future.
In the planning of the park, it is not limited to the processing of incoming materials, and it is planned to gradually build an international industrial chain supply chain system based on the food industry, marine fishery and digital economy by building a series of supporting facilities such as the largest multi-temperature zone cold chain storage base in Asia, a public service platform and a digital trading platform, forming the aggregation effect of the industrial community, which is undoubtedly a typical project of high-quality development in the new development stage.
Intelligent visualization system of public service platform of Yuanhong Investment Zone
Under the superimposed influence of the epidemic of the century and local conflicts, the security and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain system have attracted much attention, and in this context, the planning of "two countries and two parks" is extremely forward-looking, and the operation mode is more exemplary.
It is worth mentioning that the Yuanhong Investment Zone was a project that President Xi Jinping personally negotiated to introduce and participate in the foundation laying when he was working in Fuzhou.
The seeds of cooperation have long been sown in the past, and the direction of cooperation has become clearer.
President JokoWiss jostach cited three key means for Indonesia to achieve Vision 2045:
Expand exports
Improve infrastructure
Economic digitalization
These three major means are deeply riveted with China's advantages.
In terms of exports, China is Indonesia's largest trading partner. In 2021, the bilateral trade volume between China and Indonesia was US$124.43 billion, an increase of 58.6% year-on-year.
This number still has a lot of room for improvement. Xu Liping told Lord Tan that the current trade volume between the two countries does not match the economic volume of the two countries. Take the trade volume between China and ASEAN in 2021 as a reference:
In 2021, trade in goods between China and ASEAN reached US$878.2 billion. Indonesia's economy accounts for about 40% of the ASEAN economy, while the bilateral trade between China and Indonesia is only 14% of the trade volume between China and ASEAN – and there is a lot of potential for cooperation between the two countries.
During the talks, President Xi Jinping also said that China is willing to continue to expand imports of Indonesian commodities and high-quality agricultural and sideline products.
At the same time, China is willing to actively participate in the construction of Indonesia's new capital and North Kalimantan Industrial Park, expand development financing cooperation, and cultivate new growth points in the fields of digital economy and green development.
New growth points are providing new impetus for China and India to share a common destiny.
The joint press statement mentions:
The two sides will work to strengthen multilateralism. Indonesia attaches great importance to the Global Security Initiative and is willing to work with China to maintain peace and stability through dialogue and diplomacy.
The Global Security Initiative advocates the insistence on peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between States through dialogue and consultation.
Indonesia is a sample of what we are practicing.
In order to restart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, just last month, President JokoWi also visited Russia and Ukraine.
After the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States and Western countries have been pressuring Indonesia, as the G20 presidency, to exclude Russia from the G20 summit. But President Joko Widodo said he would invite Putin to the G20 summit. Similarly, he will invite Zelenskiy to the G20 summit.
Indonesia is using its own way to ease the situation in Ukraine and create conditions for persuading peace and promoting talks.
Indonesia's efforts are in the eyes of all countries. This time, Indonesia's explicit proposal to attach importance to global security is undoubtedly sending a clear signal that as the G20 presidency, Indonesia must maintain global peace and stability in the right way.
In the joint press statement, the Chinese side also said:
China supports Indonesia in hosting the G20 and looks forward to the success of the G20 Summit.
Counting the upcoming G20 summit, the world entered the "Asian moment" of global governance in the second half of this year.
BRICS Leaders' Meeting, China as The Rotating Presidency;
APEC Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting, with Thailand as chairman;
At the G20 summit, Indonesia is the rotating chair.
Most of the Asian countries are developing countries, and these countries are striving to practice true multilateralism, adhere to open regionalism, and provide oriental wisdom and contribute to Asian strength for global governance through cooperation.
This is even more valuable at a time when unilateralism is on the rise and trade protectionism is resurgent.
Only by pursuing such a foreign policy can Indonesia turn the G20 summit into a platform that can truly voice the voice of multilateralism.
Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state and the general direction of jointly building a community with a shared future, China-Indonesia relations will continue to achieve new and greater development:
Become a model of mutual benefit and win-win,
Become a model for common development,
Be a pioneer in South-South cooperation.
Such China and Indonesia can make greater contributions to maintaining world peace, stability and prosperity.
The tide of the world is mighty, and if it goes along with it, it will prosper, and if it goes against it, it will die.
China and Indonesia have chosen to be on the right side of history.