Online Roundtable: Confucius Institutes and China's Soft Diplomacy in Indonesia
About the Roundtable
This roundtable brings together scholars of Southeast Asia and China to examine the role of Confucius Institutes as instruments of China鈥檚 soft diplomacy, with a particular focus on Indonesia as an empirical site. Moving beyond a binary framing of cultural exchange versus political influence, the discussion interrogates how Confucius Institutes operate as hybrid institutional spaces, simultaneously facilitating language education, academic collaboration, and intercultural dialogue, while remaining embedded within broader structures of state-linked governance.
Drawing on case-based and conceptual perspectives, the session explores how soft power is operationalised in practice: how cultural and educational initiatives intersect with questions of curriculum control, staffing, and the management of politically sensitive knowledge. It also situates these dynamics within wider debates on international security, memory politics, and digital and epistemic governance, asking how influence is mediated, negotiated, and contested across different national and institutional contexts.
By placing Indonesia at the centre of analysis, the roundtable highlights how local actors engage with, adapt to, and reshape these initiatives, offering a grounded perspective on China鈥檚 global engagement strategies and their limits. The discussion aims to contribute to broader debates on soft power, knowledge governance, and the evolving relationship between education, geopolitics, and state influence in the contemporary international order.
Event Details
8 of May, 2026
12.00-13.00 (UK Time)
Microsoft Teams
Speakers
Dr Nawawi, Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency
Dr Yi Wang, University of Birmingham
Dr Chi Zhang, 神马福利影片
Dr Nawawi is Head of the Research Center for Law at Indonesia鈥檚 National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), where he also serves as a senior researcher. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds, alongside degrees from Mie University and Diponegoro University. He is also a lecturer in the doctoral programme in Population Studies at Gadjah Mada University.