A Historiographical Review of Studies on Sino-Indonesian Relations during the Early Stages of the Cold War, 1949–1967

The Sino-Indonesian relationship is an important research topic in Cold War studies. Since the 1960s, a number of scholarly works have been published on the subject. The declassification of diplomatic documents in various countries, and particularly the opening of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Archives following the end of the Cold War, has led to new developments in the studies on Sino-Indonesian relations. Much of this research, however, has been focused on the period from 1949 to 1965, because soon after the Indonesian military coup of September 1965, Sino-Indonesian diplomatic relations was suspended and was not restored until 1990. This article is a historiographical overview of the more controversial topics in Sino-Indonesian relations between 1949 through 1965 in scholarly publications that have came out over the past half decade. These topics include, among others, the establishment and evolution of Sino-Indonesian diplomatic relations; the standpoint of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia –PKI) toward the Sino-Soviet split; China’s reactions to the anti-Chinese movements that occurred in Indonesia between 1959 through 1961; and the cultural relations between Indonesia and China. The discussion here is limited to publications in the English and Chinese languages; this paper does not make any attempt to include relevant scholarly works that may have been published in Bahasa Indonesia or other languages.