Australia must address China tech challenge in Indonesia

Photo: Suomil Kumar/Pexels - China's free large-scale technology training in Indonesia poses a major security challenge to Australia and the region, according to a paper by experts at The Australian National University (ANU). Report co-author, Dr Dirk van der Kley said Australia and other Quad countries - India, Japan and the United States - must do more to provide technology training to Indonesia. "And it should be short-term and technically-focused to help Indonesia meet its critical ICT skills shortage," Dr van der Kley said. "Chinese firms have become the cybersecurity partner of choice in Indonesia. "This is not only because they provide the hardware but also enormous training at all levels of society from government officials down to rural students. "The programs are huge and are being provided by major companies like Huawei. Huawei alone is potentially training tens of thousands of Indonesians every year.