Sulawesi Earthquake-Tsunami: Expanding Roles in Regional Disaster Response

Set against the backdrop of the 2018 Sulawesi Earthquake and tsunami, this chapter traces the expanding roles of Chinese civil society organizations in regional disaster response. It begins by unpacking the structural barriers within Indonesia’s sovereignty-centered humanitarian system and highlights the operational gaps that enabled informal and relational entry by non-traditional actors. Drawing on field-based experiences, it explores how Chinese CSOs navigated access constraints through diaspora mediation, adaptive learning, and decentralized deployment. The analysis then turns to the gradual transition from ad hoc engagement to regionally anchored strategies, before assessing the challenges of proceduralization and institutional integration. Collectively, these trajectories reveal both the limitations and emerging pathways of Chinese CSOs as they navigate the complexities of cross-border humanitarian governance in Southeast Asia.