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ndonesian and Chinese youths play an essential role in closing a diplomatic gap between the two countries caused by a 23-year hiatus.

Indonesia suspended diplomatic relations with China in 1967 following suspicion that China interfered in Indonesian internal affairs. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1990 and began to flourish in 1998. Relations gained a new momentum when the two countries signed an agreement over a strategic partnership in 2005. Since then the two countries have attempted to boost multisector ties.

China’s Foreign Ministry has been focusing on establishing people-to-people interactions between Chinese and Indonesian youths in order to strengthen future social, economic and political ties.

The political councillor of the ministry’s Asian department, Shen Minjuan, said the 23-year break from 1967 to 1990 had created a gap of understanding between the peoples.

“We have worked hard to forge understanding by sending many of our youths to Indonesia. We have also started offering scholarships to Indonesians wishing to study in China and have increased the scope of Indonesian university degrees accepted here,” she said during a meeting with Indonesian students visiting the ministry in Beijing, China, on Tuesday.

As for China, mutual and beneficial links would only evolve through an intense relationship. The Chinese word guanxi is often poorly translated as “relationships”, but it is a central idea in Chinese society that emphasizes the importance of the relationships and the networks a person cultivates. A lack of contacts has led to lukewarm cultural exchanges and poor partnership building between potential Indonesian and Chinese business partners.

In this regard, China recently sent 100 young citizens to Indonesia with the hope that the knowledge they gained about culture and people would lead to stronger ties, while 15 Indonesian students were invited last week on a 10-day trip to five cities in China by the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta in cooperation with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) for winning an essay writing competition on Chinese-Indonesian relations.

Shen, who was a former embassy spokesperson in Jakarta, showed the reality of the two countries’ trade volumes, which ranked at only fifth, lagging behind other countries such as between Indonesia and Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

“As the second largest economy in the world, we should be first,” she explained in fluent Indonesian.

It is a hope for China that better interactions would increase interest about Indonesia among Chinese people. This could lead to more Chinese tourists traveling to the archipelago. Currently there are 1 million Chinese visiting Indonesia annually, while tourists traveling to Thailand reached 7 to 8 million every year.

Hua Chunying, the ministry’s spokesperson and deputy director-general of information, concurred that young people were the key as they were more open minded and technologically better skilled than previous generations.

On the other side, Indonesia is likely to warmly greet any attempts to gain better footing with China. Recently, Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) launched an information desk for the neighboring country in an attempt to reduce any language barriers and increase investment commitments from the Asian powerhouse from the US$21 billion invested last year to $30 billion this year.

A visiting Indonesian student from the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta, 21-year-old M. Fikri Aly, told The Jakarta Post that meetings between Indonesian and Chinese youths were important as they are the leaders of tomorrow, but he emphasized that they would work best through education channels as their effects would spill over into other sectors.

Fellow visiting undergraduate student, 18-year-old Asyifa Mahardika, added that people-to-people meetings could help shatter stereotypes and they would be able to convey their experiences to fellow youths.