Indonesia has been trying to find its footing as a major international player over the past decade. These efforts include trying to deepen investment and trade relationships with the People's Republic of China while skirting around differences over territorial claims and addressing Beijing’s rising prominence across Southeast Asia. Of concern as well is the pressure Chinese exports are placing on small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia, along with the safety of the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian citizens working in Taiwan should Beijing escalate the use of force across the Taiwan Strait. Host Ian Chong examines these issues with guests Natalie Sambhi and Yohanes Sulaiman.

Natalie Sambhi is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, Señor Policy Fellow at the Asia Society Australia, and Non-Resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program. She is also a lecturer with the Australian War College. Yohanes Sulaiman is an associate professor of international relations at Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani in Bandung, Indonesia and a non-resident fellow with the National Bureau of Asian Research.