Nickel downstreaming refers to domestic processing of nickel ore, that is, to refine commodities at home to make exports more valuable. Chinese-linked companies dominate the nickel smelter industry in Indonesia.
Another reason for China’s invitation to Prabowo was that Beijing wanted to ensure that under Prabowo, Indonesia does not move closer to the United States and the West.
“I suspect that China wants to ensure that Prabowo continues the foreign policy that Jokowi previously carried out,” he said.
China is invested in the Prabowo presidency because it wants its projects in Indonesia to stay on track, Raden said.
However, he doesn’t approve of China being Prabowo’s first stop as president-elect.
“Prabowo’s visit to China is too soon. It would have been better if he had waited until he was inaugurated first, then visited a foreign country,” Raden said.
“Visits to foreign countries by the newly inaugurated Indonesian president should first be to neighboring ASEAN member countries such as Malaysia, considering that Indonesia’s interests are much greater in ASEAN than in other countries,” Raden said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Prabowo has bucked tradition in another way as well with his overseas trip, according to Zulfikar Rahmat, director of the China-Indonesia Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios).
This is the first time that a president-elect – one who has not been sworn in – has accepted a foreign government’s invitation to visit, Zulfikar told BenarNews. Prabowo is to be inaugurated as president in October.
“There are two reasons for this. The first is, of course, that Prabowo sees China as a partner in the economic sector. We know that in recent years, China has been Indonesia’s number one trading partner,” he said.
“Second, I see that Prabowo wants to continue Jokowi’s legacy, which is [being] close to China.”
Like Jokowi, Prabowo puts Indonesia’s economy front and center, which brings it closer to China, Zulfikar said.
Muradi, a politics and security analyst at University of Padjadjaran in Bandung, said Prabowo had an interest in seeing how China carries out its defense modernization, which is expected to be completed in 2027.