Emily Tahar (Mahasiswa Prodi Ilmu Hubungan Internasional Unpar)
Flashback to the year 2000. While countries all over the world were trying to invent touch screen phones, computers smaller than a boom box, and even a cure for dengue fever, China was already in the process of creating a youth potion and flying cars. China seems to have a mark on everything. From the newest phones, brand new sneakers; from the highest technology to food products, everything has a “Made in China” stamp mark. Beyond the stereotypes of how all Chinese people are able to literally create and replicate everything existing and still in the process of innovation with a low cost of production, China is leading in terms of world domination. Yes China, not the United States. Fast forward to the current year—2016—“Made in China” stamps are spreading throughout the globe even greater than the number of the human population. In a country like Indonesia, the stereotypes of China is still present within the population, however these stereotypes are truly seen as a gap that makes China greater than most countries. Even in the eyes of Indonesian youngsters, China is a core country where there is always room for enhancement and progress. China leaves the rest of the world as it sits high in the top as the role model of world infrastructure, the creator of policies that leads to breakthroughs, and also the leader of economic growth.
Everybody knows that China is the most populated country in the world with almost 1,4 billion people. According to Worldometer, China’s population covers 18.72% of the total world population. For Indonesians, especially the people of Bandung who have to spend weekends in heavy traffic from the overflow of cars with “B” plates, being overpopulated brings a lot of issues to place. The number of limited land and the number of the people, the number of cars and available roads, and the number of jobs to the population have to be proportionally parallel. Indonesia counts in the rank of countries with the most population. However, the entities that should be considered being an emerging overpopulated country are not highly considered which is what truly differentiate Indonesia and China. Being overpopulated does not stop China to give up on developing their infrastructure; instead they rock at it.
China leads in terms of infrastructure both locally and investments internationally. Expressways in China have evolved to 49,000 miles and roads to 2.6 million miles which is double the amount from 2002.[1] In terms of transportation, China is highly known to have created paths to one of the best planes, trains, and automobiles in the planet. Their infrastructure developments proved to sufficiently facilitate the almost 1,4 billion people across the country. Locally, water infrastructures development has also been developed proportional with the development of the rapid growth of its industrialization. Water infrastructure includes the attempt to provide water supply to areas all over China to ensure a fair water distribution for its people. Having all these attempts acts as a step closer to welfare, which is why plans of infrastructure keeps on being developed. In Indonesia, plans of infrastructure developments are not causing a rise of excitement for the people due to the fact that most of the times the plans are not carried out as fast as it should be.
Beyond local efforts, China is leading in infrastructure internationally. All over the world, China has invested money on infrastructure such as in Africa and even Indonesia. Despite the fact that it
involves economic matters, China has been trusted by countries all over the world not just in Asia’s region to help develop the countries’ infrastructure. This fact supports even more how China is leading in terms of infrastructure development. In Indonesia recently, China has invested its famous high speed train projects for Jakarta-Bandung. China wins over Japan over this project, which creates a new perspective upon China by Indonesian people. In terms of quality and costs, China presents itself as capable of giving the best of both entities, which is why in the eyes of Indonesians, China is leading in world infrastructure. Despite the fact that infrastructure developments might be still insufficient to support the rapid pace of China’s population, the fact that the government is capable in assisting plans in a fast pace with a concrete action proves that they lead not only in infrastructure in terms of concrete matter, but also in terms of durations of carrying out the plans into the real thing.
Second of all, Indonesian youths view China as the creator of policies that leads to breakthroughs. The first policy is their education policy. Like Indonesia, China also has a policy on a Nine-Year Compulsory Education. The Education ministry of China helps train teachers, create curriculums, and also train methods of education that meets the standards of urbanization. The compulsory education policy establishes a standard of education in all areas of China, both the urban and rural areas. Improvements for a better higher education have also been worked out by the government which makes China’s education really modern in all aspects of study groups. This education policy is really carried out and not just performs as plans due to the concrete examples of the education training network that the government has to train teachers. Indonesia has the same education policy but lacked of training system and modernization methods to be applied in the school’s curriculum. The ministry of education in China also updates their methods in a range of time that is relatively short. New plans for reforms are currently being planned to make sure that their methodologies are not outdated, the student’s burdens are not too heavy, more education funding to be allocated, and also more professional and skilled teachers are to be present. In the recent 2013 curriculum that the Ministry of Education in Indonesia proposed, it seems to be the opposite of what China had in mind. The curriculum has many people opposing it both from the students and also the parents.
Another grand policy that leads to breakthroughs is China’s famous anti-corruption policy. The anti-corruption policy allows a death penalty as a punishment when government officials corrupt, take bribes, conceal illegal gains, evading taxes, and corrupt funds. Corruption used to be a big deal in China before the anti-corruption policy was enforced. After they made the punishment to a death penalty, there are still actors of corruption in the government; however, the numbers began to grow smaller and smaller according to time. The factor that leads to a harsh punishment is due to the fact that Chinese government views corruption as a capital offense. Even though it may violate the rights of a human being to live, the anti-corruption policy is not seen as a controversial issue in China. This policy is the main policy that blows people’s minds in Indonesia, especially the youths. Most of the children in Indonesia were raised with an attitude of distrust towards the government. Since the beginning of Indonesia’s independence, corruption has played a great role in the governmental system in Indonesia. Also, from the beginning of time, youths act as actors that are against corruption and most of the times, against the acts of government officials. With the rise of KPK’s role to fight against corruption in Indonesia, corruption still evolves in Indonesia. The irony is that the government officials that are caught guilty of corruption seemed to ignore their sin. In fact, ironically, the sentence of their corrupt acts is most of the times lower and shorter than the sentence of someone stealing a pile of wood. The anti-corruption law in China brought breakthroughs to China as a government that shows integrity and also brings breakthroughs in other countries to face the fact that they are treating guilty corruptors too lightly.
The last policy is China’s famous one-child policy. Having a one-child policy helps lower than the rates of newborn babies in China. This policy is very ground breaking because Chinese people hangs on to the culture that the more kids you have, means the more wealth you will have. Chinese culture also is strongly dependable on the male members of the family which is why having a lot of kids is common for the Chinese people in general. One-child policy actually reforms their own culture which shows a lot of the Chinese people. They are willing to release their culture for a communal welfare of China. China is found guilty of being the most populated place on earth and they do not just sit around and see what happens, but they are willing to change into a better China. Indonesia has a similar children policy which is the two-child policy, but most of the people in Indonesia ignore it because they did not catch the essence and the reason for that policy. Citizens of Indonesia ignore the fact that they are included in the top 10 rank of the most populous countries.
China is also known as one of the leaders of world economy. In fact, China is the second largest growing economy country in the world. We can see this from the fact that everything is made from China. China knows what to do to enlarge their economy. There are a lot of foreign firms that are located in China. China knows that they are overpopulated and that what they need to ensure the welfare of their citizens is to make sure that the level of unemployment is low. The fact that they allow foreign firms create an open opportunity for Chinese citizens to be employed. Also since China is capable of creating and replicating literally everything, there are even more job opportunities for its people. China is capable of being a country with great economy because it allows easy access for importing and exporting goods. In Indonesia for example, the price of oranges imported from China is way cheaper than the price of oranges from Sumatera, even though Sumatera is still within the country. Everything that is made in China is also relatively cheaper which makes foreign countries able to import goods from China. The greatest cause for China’s great economy is probably because of the low cost of production it provides, which explains the large number of foreign firms in China. The extensive number of low payment workers interest investors to produce their goods in China instead of their own country or even other countries. With the large amount of workers, low cost of production that can be easily obtained in China, and the easy access of exporting and importing in China creates a magnet for world investors in China.
Yes, China is overpopulated and probably not all the citizens are skillful or have a high education due to poverty. However, it did not stop the government of China to be the second largest economic country in the world. The government knew the areas they are lacking and the areas they need to improve. What they did was to use their weakness and strength to ensure the welfare of the people which is what the Indonesians look up to from China. Indonesian youths are dreamers and China seems very similar to Indonesia, but somehow really far in terms of development. It seems possible to make Indonesia as close as China for dreamers like the youths, which is why youths see China as a role model that can make Indonesia into a better place.
Beyond the stereotypes of China, there is more to offer from it to not be underestimated. More and more Chinese language courses are open in Indonesia, and mothers of all ethnicity encouraging their children to learn mandarin and speaking them fluently. Making Indonesia into China seems to be a utopia and merely impossible for Indonesian youths—the dreamers. What differentiates China and Indonesia is that China is not afraid to accept themselves and move forward to modernity. They know that they have to achieve welfare for all the citizens of China and look at them now; they are the leader of the world. Indonesian youths should take what the government of China is doing, and then adopts them to how Indonesia should be, and by then, I believe that Indonesia will be like China as well—the leader of the world.
[1] [1] Anne VanderMey, “China’s New Infrastructure,” Fortune, May 23 2013, accessed on April 25, 2016. http://fortune.com/2013/05/23/chinas-new-infrastructure/
