Confucius Institute (CI) is an organization arranged and funded currently by the Chinese International Education Foundation. It was formerly organized by Hanban, an organization affiliated with the Chinese Government. As a tool of China’s public diplomacy in Indonesia, CI contributes by implementing the five elements of public diplomacy theory that were firstly initiated by Nicholas. J. Cull. However, there are obstacles that the organization faces in the process of promoting Chinese language and culture in Indonesia. This research aims to investigate the contributions of CI in implementing the five elements of public diplomacy as well as to analyze the obstacles that the institution should face in the implementation process. The research uses the public diplomacy theory by Edmond Gullion in 1965 followed by Nicholas. J. Cull who elaborated the theory into a simple taxonomy which is divided into five elements, namely, listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, international broadcasting, and exchange diplomacy. The research uses qualitative approach by conducting documentation studies and interviewing several informants such as Director of CI at UAI, students of CI at UAI, and a lecturer of International relations at Jenderal Soedirman University (UNSOED). Furthermore, the analysis technique used is the Miles and Huberman model. Results show that despite CI having made significant contributions, its efforts of conducting China’s public diplomacy in Indonesia still needs to be maximized due to external and internal obstacles that it should face.

Keywords: Public Diplomacy, China’s Public Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy Instrument, Confucius Institute, Public Diplomacy Elements, Public Diplomacy Challenges, Indonesia