Original Paper Zheng He’s Soft Power Discourse in Indonesia: Identity in Power Relation

This article proposes an identity turn in the ongoing discourse of China‟s peaceful rise. While economic diplomacy remains as China‟s leading trade, a robust social relation has been deliberately promoted in maintaining the relationship between states. To symbolize the peaceful relation, China does not need to look further as Zheng He, an ancient sea admiral of the Ming dynasty, posed as a powerful figure for peaceful diplomacy. The social constructivist approach to soft power will be used in analyzing the concept of collective identity and power relations. To illustrate this approach, a specific case study on China-Indonesia Muslim‟s connection that exists since Zheng He‟s era, will be highlighted as a landscape where the shared identity meet. The qualitative method will be applied to interpret shared values between the two societies. Despite the fact that the state level of analysis is generally used in depicting soft power discourse, this article tries to step beyond the boundaries of states by emphasizing the relationship of soft power in society level.


Introduction
For Indonesians, Zheng He symbolizes two historical events: the Nusantara encounter with China's maritime power and the diffusion of Islamic values. In his first expedition in 1405, Zheng He has stopped in Java, Samudera Pasai and Lambri (in northern Sumatra) (Yang, 2014). Although Zheng He was not the first Chinese messenger to interact with the Nusantara, however, the arrival of his fleet consisting of 317 ships and 27,000 crew (Guan, 2005) was the first exposure of the archipelago's maritime power to precede the entry of European traders. Zheng He's mission also has other meanings than diplomacy and trade, namely the third wave of diffusion of Islamic values in the archipelago www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eprd Economics, Politics and Regional Development Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020 65 Published by SCHOLINK INC. known as the, which occurred after the first wave (Gujarat traders) and the second wave (from the Arabian Peninsula) (Muljana, 2005). These two historical events later became a milestone for China's relations in the archipelago, as well as China's relations with post-independence Indonesia.
Six centuries later, the discourse about Zheng He is still relevant, especially when discussing China's peaceful rise. The Chinese maritime history that was built by Zheng He under the rule of the Ming dynasty provided a comparable construction for European maritime forces that carried the narrative of colonialism and imperialism. Mingjiang (2009) mentions that the embryo of Chinese soft power and the conception of China's peaceful rise is reflected in Zheng He's expedition which was solely aimed at demonstrating the superiority of technology, trade, and Chinese culture. In the 28-year expedition, the Ming dynasty did not implement expansion policies, but prioritized peaceful relations with political entities in its destination region, covering Southeast Asia, India, West Asia to East Africa (Pollard, 2015). Yoshihara (2009)  There are countless studies on Zheng He's maritime expedition-from historical, archeological, to its diplomatic aspect. The wide range of Zheng He's studies has provided this article a deep understanding of the famous Ming admiral's influence on the global level, yet a problem occurs in finding a novelty in the discourse of Zheng He. Fortunately, Zheng He's discourse in Indonesia is rather dynamic since the Chinese-Muslim in Indonesia offers an interesting study of the relation between power and identity.
The social landscape of Chinese-Muslim identity will perform a case study with social constructivism as an analytical framework. By using Wendt's theory of social construction (1999), this research outlined two key questions in analyzing Zheng He's soft power discourse, which is: (1) To what extend the Zheng He's maritime history constructed Chinese-Muslim identity in Indonesia?; (2) How it relates to the power relation between Chinese and Indonesia? In the scope of International Relation theories, social constructivism is known for its capacity in bridging the gap between traditionalist and reflectivist by that emphasizing the importance of global ethics and the role of norms, cultures, and identities in relations between countries. It also highlights the importance of identity and social collective consciousness in mapping the power relation between countries (Wendt, 1995). By placing social constructivism as a theoretical guideline, this article will discuss how identity can play an important role in maintaining a good relationship between the countries.

Method
The method of this article is qualitative for depth understanding the Zheng He's soft power and uses library sources.

Theoretical Framework
Power has many forms-at least there are three forms of power according to Dahl (1961) who defined power into coercion, consent, and persuasion. Coercion is practiced by displaying military capabilities, consent often achieved by the positive economic deal, while persuasion mostly refers to the power of attraction. In practice, however, the use of three forms of power is often combined to attain the intended goal. By the end of the twentieth century, an advanced usage of power is coined by Joseph Nye (1990) as soft power, a shifting perspective from the traditional usage of direct power to the subtle attraction of persuasion. The term changed radically the conceptualization of power, and it gave way to the realization of culture and identity as a means of power.
As defined in Nye's "Soft Power" thesis (1990) it works by forming the interests public through fascination. Nye called it "the means to success" in world politics which emphasizes "the growing importance of national values, ideas, domestic and foreign policies that make up countries" attraction, which is instrumental in helping states achieve foreign policy goals and therefore maximize their power vis-à-vis others" (2004). Later on, this definition extended into wider scope as Soft Power is also defined as the capacity to influence others through the co-optive methods for framing other state's motivation, by convincing and inspiring positive attraction to achieve the intended result (Nye, 2011).
Unfortunately, Nye's conceptualization of Soft Power does not provide a solid reason for how and why interests can be changed. Therefore, in further study of Soft Power often connected with other conceptualization of power to develop its method and dimension (Feklyunina, 2016). For instance, Dahl expression's on the third form of power (the power of persuasion), perceived as a solid method of achieving Soft Power. Dahl (1961) comprehends power as the capacity to persuade others to conduct something even though it is against their will. Another method in achieving Soft Power also can be traced back to another conception of power that emphasizes setting the interest of others to be in line with ours (Bachrach & Baratz, 1962 Wendt (1999), is not given but constructed, formed, and develop as actors change their perception both inward and outer. Wendt also mentioned that it was an identity that provides an inner "motivational power" derived from "desire" and "trust" (Wendt). In Another connection between identity and soft power is reasoned by International Relations prominent, Reich and Lebow (2014) that discussed the significant roles of identity to persuade other to cooperate (Miskimmon, 2014)

China's Soft Power: A Power Relation
The International system operates based on a specific pattern of power relations. However, the evolution of the system has indicated a changing form of power as perceived in Nye's thesis on soft power written in the early 1990s. A decade later, practically every state has paid greater attention to soft power in achieving its interest in the international system (Mingjiang, 2009 (Yoshihara, 2009).

Zheng He as Soft Power: Constructing Similar Identity
Peaceful rise or "heping jueqi" is mentioned in 2001 the annual Boao Forum for international business as a strategic pathway for China in the 21st century (Mohan, 2004). The statement rejects the international notion that perceived China as a threat to the world by disrupting the existing system. Therefore, the official statement explained that "the only choice for China under the current international situation was to rise peacefully, namely, to develop by taking advantage of the peaceful international environment and at the same time, to maintain world peace through its development" (Zheng in Mohan, 2004). However, to attain the idea of peaceful rise, China needs a strong narrative to convince the international system and construct their image, and the government likely realize that traditional power is insufficient to reach this objective. Therefore, the narrative of peaceful rise is shaped by following Nye's soft power pillars of national values, ideas, domestic and foreign policies (Nye, 2004). As the foreign policy is driven by forming strong diplomatic infrastructures, national values and ideas are constructed by narrating national memories of the Chinese glorious past (Mingjiang, 2009 Ocean. He also visited Java and leave a good impression on the political elite in Java which giving him and his armada a permission to stay (Yang, 2014 (Mahfud, 2014). In this case, a shared interest and identity can clearly be observed from the multifunction of Zheng He mosques. It is not only as media to connect Islamic, Chinese, and Indonesian, but also an embodiment of Chine's soft power in Indonesia that operates in the society level. As stated in Mohan's thesis, that "there is nothing random about the intensity of the current Chinese campaign to convince its neighbors in Asia that its new profile in the world system does not threaten anyone" (Mohan, 2004). Another example of China's soft power also can be found, since both states are forming an intimate economic relation. However, soft power can only be achieved when a state can attract the people and construct harmony of interest in society level.

Conclusion
Several conclusions emerge from this study. To begin with, the narrative of soft power is generated in China's elite level to counter the negative perception of China. Second, Chinese discourse on soft power in narrated according to Joseph S. Nye's theoretical structure, but is not strictly limited to the scope of that conceptualization. Third, in contrast to Nye's essential spotlight on the viability of soft power in accomplishing international strategy objectives, the practice of Chinese soft power is operating in three-level: structural, national, and issues (social)