On Wednesday 24 March 2010, Indonesian authorities closed down Radio Erabaru in Batam, and confiscated its equipment. The official reason was that it did not have the correct licence, but most observers agree with the station’s claims that the real reason was increasing pressure from the Chinese government.

Radio Erabaru points out that the reason it did not have a valid licence was that it had been awaiting a court ruling on a lawsuit filed over the government's refusal to renew its licence in 2007.

It so happens that in 2007, stories broadcast on Radio Erabaru about human rights abuses in China prompted the Chinese Embassy to send a stern, unsigned letter to four Indonesian government ministries, including the Indonesian Broadcasting Committee. The letter warned of damaged relations between the two countries if Radio Erabaru continued to operate, and pressured the ministries to closely monitor and close it down. The other ministries targeted were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Intelligence, and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (KPI).
 
Frequency change
In 2008 the KPI changed the frequency of Radio Erabaru so that it clashed with that of another station. KPI then claimed that the 106.5 FM frequency that Erabaru was using was “non-permitted,” which it maintains is one of the reasons why it should be shut down. The station, which first came on the air in 2005, broadcast in Bahasa Indonesia and in Chinese and had close ties with Falun Gong, an organisation that China has outlawed and sees as a threat to the Communist Party.
 
Indonesian officials have acknowledged that the Chinese Embassy complained about the station, but they have denied this had anything to do with the closure. "It's related to our limited radio frequency. We've never received any request from the Chinese embassy to do this," Communications and Information Technology Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewabroto said.
 
The origins of Falun Gong
Falun Gong (sometimes known as Falun Dafa) is a system of beliefs and practices founded in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992. By 1999, there were already an estimated 70 million followers, and the Chinese government declared Falun Gong to be an "evil cult". Western academics, however, generally describe it as a new religious movement or a "spiritual movement" based on the teachings and instructions of its founder, with a heavy emphasis on truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
 
In July 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong and began a major propaganda campaign against it. Between 1999 and 2004, human rights groups reported that Falun Gong practitioners in China were subject to a wide range of human rights abuses.

Many Falun Gong groups moved abroad and its practitioners founded media outlets such as the Epoch Times, the international radio station Sound of Hope, and satellite TV station New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) to publicise their cause and criticise the Chinese government. In the past few years the group has emerged as a notable force in opposing the Communist Party and its policies. Falun Gong websites claim there are now over 100 million practitioners in 114 countries and regions around the world.
 
Human rights abuses
The authorities in Beijing are concerned about the activities of this organisation outside China because its media outlets constantly draw attention to human rights abuses by the Chinese government, which are then reported by other international media.

Last year Beijing also put pressure on satellite operator Eutelsat which led to the latter’s decision to drop NTDTV and three Mandarin radio stations, including Sound of Hope. Like the Indonesian authorities, Eutelsat has denied Chinese pressure and has used technical arguments to justify its decision.
 
But why has Indonesia apparently caved in to pressure from China over one local station? Unsurprisingly, it’s about money and investment. Indonesia is now regarded as China's fourth largest trade partner among the ten countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Some 700 Chinese investors are already involved in Indonesia’s energy, finance, transportation, automotive, farming and fisheries industries.

Companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec, Sinosteel, Minmetals and China Investment Corp (CIC), a 300-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, are actively looking for takeover targets and joint venture partners in Indonesia. Some potential deals are reportedly worth more than 1 billion US dollars.
 
Muscle flexing
Having become a major financial power, China has learned to flex its muscles and use that power to its advantage. It doesn’t even have to make direct threats, as merely pointing out that situations could lead to unspecified “damaged relations” is often sufficient. China is now in a position to manipulate the domestic media in a growing number of countries, while at the same time it spends vast amounts of money expanding its own international media operations and jamming some broadcasts and blocking websites from overseas.

It’s surely time for bodies like the International Telecommunication Union, of which China is a member, to get tough with members who habitually flout its regulations. At the moment, it appears that China is making up its own rules.
 
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
 
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