Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Once Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo came to power, China’s investment in Indonesia significantly increased in various sectors. As a consequence, the influx of Chinese tourists, as well as migrant workers, came to the archipelago along with intention, culture, and social problems. Although, the government did not worry about this trend due to the number relatively small compared to the overall population of the country. Yet, in the grassroots level, this became contentious debate especially in social media concerning security issues. This is because as has been wide coverage in the national media, the existence of Chinese migrant workers unneeded amid a huge number of the local unemployment rate. Meanwhile, the negative narrative of Chinese ‘threat’ due to the spin of past history of Chinese involvement in Indonesian politics during the Cold War ahead of the election. This paper examines the ‘Chinese threat’ from the social media perspective since the government did not take account of these issues. This study contributes to the literature most notably related to security studies from a social media context.

Presenters

Ali Maksum
Assoc Prof, Department of International Relations, Department of International Relations, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Surwandono M.Si.

Tri Mulyadi