I write this piece not as a diplomat, but as a student whose perspective has been shaped by two very different classrooms. One in Indonesia and one her in China.
Living between these two worlds, I have realized that admiration often travels faster than reflection. Somewhere along my journey in Beijing, I began to notice a subtle, troubling shift among my peers and even within myself. Where admiration turns into imitation, an imitation quietly dissolves into a loss of confidence in our own home.
I am not trying to critique China’s substantial achievements, rather it is more of my personal plea for us to pause before surrendering our intellectual independence to the seduction of surface-level comparisons.
In many of my conversations with fellow Indonesian students here, a recurring tone emerges. The assumption that China is not only advanced, but implicitly superior.
We see the maglev trains and the “automated everything,” and we begin to treat efficiency as the sole criteria for civilization.
Yet, as I walk through the streets of Beijing, I’ve learned to look past the visible uniformity. I see a digital ecosystem that is highly developed but structurally concentrated.
When I look at the data, I see that WeChat pay and Alipay control over 90% of the market. This is the reality I live in every day. A world of immense convenience within a duopoly, but one that lacks genuine plurality.
Back home, I see a fundamentally different design philosophy at work through QRIS.
While I once might have overlooked it, I now recognize that QRIS is not just a technical tool, but also an institutional expression of Indonesia’s pluralistic ethos.
Unlike the fragmented system I navigate in China, where competing wallets often cannot read each other’s codes, Indonesia’s system mandates interoperability. Any Indonesian e-wallet, be it GoPay, DANA, or OVO can scan the same code.
To me, this reveals a striking irony, considering my peers here praise Chinese fintech, while Indonesia has actually built what China is actually trying to achieve in the end. A genuinely unified national standard.
As a student at Renmin University of China, I encounter excellence daily, but I have come to understand that excellence is deeply contextual.
What works spectacularly in this institutional environment does not automatically translate to ours. China’s system is a product of its unique platform economy.
Our QRIS is a product of a deliberate choice to prioritize inclusion over platform dominance.
To interpret this difference as an Indonesian deficiency is, in my view, an act of intellectual carelessness.
The real concern for me isn’t admiration, because admiration is natural. What troubles me is the imbalance. I see my fellow students measuring Indonesia through a Chinese lens, treating every divergence as a shortcoming rather tahn an alternative design choice.
We risk overlooking the quiet innovations emerging from home, like our cross-border integration with Singapore, Malaysia, and now even China itself.
In April 2026, when we launched the QR payment link with Alipay and UnionPay, it proved to me that we are not just followers, but also architects of our own progress.
I have realized that Indonesia does not need to become China to succeed.
We need to become more fully ourselves. Confident in our pluralism and courageous in defining our own standards.
My time studying abroad has taught me that this experience should expand one’s horizon, not narrow one’s loyalty.
To learn from China is wise, but to lose faith in Indonesia is a mistake.
My task now is not to choose between these two worlds, but to stand firmly in my identity as an Indonesian while truly seeking to understand the complexities of China.
