Tuesday, 28 May 2024 – In this hybrid seminar, Dr Xue Song, a Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, shared her insights regarding Indonesian Islamic organisations and their engagement with China.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
This webinar examined the motivations behind Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah’s engagement with China. Mr Eugene Mark, Assistant Fellow at ISEAS –Yusof Ishak Institute served as moderator for the event. The seminar attracted over 100 in-person and virtual attendees.
Dr Xue Song began her presentation by noting that China has been increasing interactions with Indonesia due to Indonesia’s strategic placement as a prominent ASEAN member state in China’s “Neighbourhood Diplomacy” agenda. She argued that aside from political and economic ties via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has been boosting people-to-people ties with Indonesia via religious diplomacy.
Defining “religious diplomacy” as part of China’s public diplomacy since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Dr Xue noted that in the past, China’s “religious diplomacy” was focused on guarding against interference by hostile external religious groups but has since shifted to the goal of international exchange. Dr Xue pointed out that, during the 1955 Bandung Conference, China distributed an album titled “Muslims in China”, which was written in Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Arabic to clarify China’s religious policies to the multiple countries who attended the conference. This effort indicated that China was aware of Indonesia’s significant influence in the Islamic world.
Thereafter, she prefaced her examination of NU and Muhammadiyah by utilising Professor Shih Chih-yu’s “Imagined Resemblance” theory to discuss how these organisations align themselves with China. This theory proposes two ways of establishing relations: (1) rediscovering “prior resemblance” through shared history and collective memory and (2) “impromptu resemblance” via strategic identity. The key questions she raised included, “Who activates prior resemblance and how?” and “Who shapes impromptu resemblance and how?”
On NU, Dr Xue observed that “prior resemblance” is utilised by actively promoting Zheng He as a cultural symbol, incorporating “Chineseness” in Indonesian Islamic rituals such as the walimah khitan and invoking the use of the Chinese origin story of Islam. She noted that the use of “prior resemblance” aligns with NU’s ideology of Islam Nusantara, which respects the intersection of Islam and local culture and refutes the idea that Islam in Indonesia is synonymous with that in the Middle East. By acknowledging China as an alternative channel for the dissemination of Islam historically, Dr Xue argued that the Chinese origin story supports the pluralistic notion of Islam Nusantara.
On Muhammadiyah, Dr Xue noted that “impromptu resemblance” is used to establish relations through mutual objectives in social modernisation and economic development. Unlike NU’s focus on pluralism, Muhammadiyah’s narrative is Progressive Islam, which aims to shape modern Muslim society, emphasising reason and knowledge. As such, “impromptu resemblance” is achieved by first acknowledging China as a nation that shares close cooperative ties with Indonesia even as friction can sometimes exist, second viewing China as a non-western alternative development model for rapid progress, and finally, viewing China as an international political force competitive on the global stage.
Next, Dr Xue assessed the NU and Muhammadiyah’s differing stances on the issue of Xinjiang, noting that they are consistent with the ideologies of the different organisations. NU favours diplomatic and political solutions to the Xinjiang issue. Instead of outright criticism of China, NU maintains ambiguity to prevent contradiction with the positive image NU has established of China over the years. In contrast, Muhammadiyah continues to voice concern about the human rights issue in Xinjiang even after being invited to Xinjiang for a visit. This stance aligns with the core principle of Progressive Islam, which promotes “calling to good and preventing evil,” a principle they believe should be applied to all countries, including China.
In concluding, Dr Xue noted that NU and Muhammadiyah view their interactions with China as a means to propagate their respective religious narratives. China’s active promotion of religious diplomacy also allows NU and Muhammadiyah to formulate specific collaborative strategies.
During the Q&A session, Dr Xue responded to a series of questions covering topics like the comprehensive initiatives launched by China for Indonesia’s major Islamic organisations, the effects of the strategies by NU and Muhammadiyah on the local population, the capacity of her resemblance model to accommodate different actors within the same entity, the counterparts of NU and Muhammadiyah in China, and the types of strategies Chinese firms employ to foster relations with NU and Muhammadiyah.