JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday (Aug 30) cancelled a planned trip to China as days of protests spread further outside the capital Jakarta, with several regional parliament buildings set ablaze.
Prabowo had been due to attend a “Victory Day” parade in China on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two following Japan’s formal surrender.
The protests, the first major test for Prabowo’s nearly year-old government, began in Jakarta this week over lawmakers’ pay and worsened after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle rider.
“The president wants to continue monitoring (the situation in Indonesia) directly…and seek the best solutions,” presidential spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi said in a video statement on Saturday.
“Therefore, the president apologises to the Chinese government that he could not attend the invitation.”
Another consideration in cancelling the trip was a United Nations General Assembly session in September, Prasetyo said.
In the light of the protest, short-video app TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, said on Saturday it had suspended its live feature in Indonesia for a few days.
Jakarta had this week summoned representatives of social media platforms, including as Meta Platforms Inc and TikTok, and told them to boost content moderation because disinformation had spread online. The government says that such disinformation has spurred protests against it.
