Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday cancelled a planned trip to China as days of protests spread further outside the capital Jakarta, with several regional parliament buildings set ablaze.
Prabowo had been due to attend a “Victory Day” parade in China on Sept 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII following Japan’s formal surrender.
The protests, the first major test for Prabowo’s nearly year-old government, began in Jakarta this week over lawmakers’ pay and worsened after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle rider.
“The president wants to continue monitoring (the situation in Indonesia) directly…and seek the best solutions,” presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi said in a video statement on Saturday.
“Therefore, the president apologises to the Chinese government that he could not…