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span class="inline inline-left">Courtesy of Chinese EmbassyChina has appointed a senior diplomat as its new ambassador to Indonesia to further strengthen the growing strategic ties between the two countries, the Chinese Embassy’s Charge d’ Affaires Liu Quan said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

“Ambassador-designate Liu Jianchao is a high-ranking officer in the ministry of foreign affairs. He worked as the spokesperson for the foreign ministry. The new ambassador will arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday,” Liu Quan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Ambassador Liu will submit his letter of credentials to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono soon, Liu Quan added.

Liu’s appointment comes just ahead of President Yudhoyono’s state visit to China later this month. He will replace the popular ambassador Zhang Qiyue, herself a former spokeswoman for the foreign ministry. Zhang has already left Indonesia after a successful tenure in Jakarta. The appointment is also an indication of the importance with which China views Indonesia.

“We regard Indonesia as strategically very important. That’s why our government always appoints a senior official as our ambassador to Indonesia,” Liu Quan said. The new ambassador, a career diplomat, is not completely new to Southeast Asian affairs.

He was China’s ambassador to the Philippines from 2008 to 2011. He joined the foreign ministry in 1987 after obtaining his master’s degree in international relations from the prestigious Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He worked as a first secretary at the Chinese Embassy in London.

The new ambassador has a huge responsibility to give new shape to the fast growing strategic partnership between China and Indonesia and to address Indonesian concerns on the trade imbalance arising from the ASEAN- China Free Trade Area agreement which came into effect in 2010.

China is currently the biggest consumer of Indonesia’s non oil and gas exports. Based on Indonesian statistics the bilateral trade surged to US$49.15 billion in 2011, a 36.09 percent increase from $36.11 billion in 2010. The figure is much higher according to Chinese government statistics. “Based on our statistics, bilateral trade is worth $60 billion (in 2011). That is very high,” Liu Quan said.

In an effort to boost its soft power image in Indonesia, China will provide 200 scholarships to Indonesian students this year to study in Chinese universities. “We would like to enhance people-to-people contacts between the two countries. We will give 1,000 scholarships over five years starting this year,” Liu Quan said.

In spite of the increasing dynamism in both countries’ relations, the large number of ethnic Chinese-Indonesians and a growing expat Chinese community, China, the world’s second-largest economy, lags behind its East Asian peers like Japan and South Korea in terms of cultural diplomacy in Indonesia.

The new ambassador, who spent much of his time in the information department at the foreign ministry, is expected to establish a Chinese cultural center in Jakarta to raise Indonesian awareness of the world’s most populous nation.