Police in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta say they are going after the uploader of a viral video that suggested the Chinese army was gearing up to invade Indonesia.
The video has been making the rounds online recently, showing military uniforms being hanged on rows of clothes racks. Whoever was filming the video said from behind the camera that the uniforms belonged to members of the Chinese army and that they had just been cleaned at an undisclosed laundry in Kelapa Gading.
At one point, the narrator speculated that the Chinese army was “prepared to go to war.”
The North Jakarta Police reposted the video on Instagram, along with the results of their preliminary investigation into the matter.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDDQ17gDqr9/?utm_source=ig_embed
“We have checked 42 laundries in the Kelapa Gading area and did not find any resembling the one in the video,” Kelapa Gading Police Chief Rando Siregar said in the video above.
In addition, Rando said they have determined the uniforms to be South Korean, not Chinese, following confirmation from a South Korean interpreter.
The North Jakarta Police’s Crime Investigation Unit says it’s still investigating the video. The uploader, if caught, may be charged with disinformation under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), which is a crime punishable by up to six years in prison.
Anti-China paranoia is quite pervasive in Indonesia, especially among supporters of the opposition. Distrust of China as a nation, and of Chinese people, are also high among Indonesians, perpetuated in large part by hoaxes such as Chinese migrants coming over to steal local jobs.
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