170 POLICY OF CHINA'S DEBT-TRAP DIPLOMACY: The Influence Of Media In Forming Community Political Opinions Haderiansyah Master of Communication Studies Program, Islamic University of Kalimantan admin@uniska-bjm.ac.id Margareta Habibah Master of Communication Studies Program, Islamic University of Kalimantan admin@uniska-bjm.ac.id Andri Setiawan Master of Communication Studies Program, Islamic University of Kalimantan admin@uniska-bjm.ac.id Muzahid Akbar Hayat Master of Communication Studies Program, Islamic University of Kalimantan admin@uniska-bjm.ac.id ABSTRACT The term debt-trap or Chinese debt trap originated from the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) policy by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 which aims to connect the Eurasian economy with infrastructure, trade and investment. Debt trap diplomacy is related to the cases that occurred in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In Indonesia, the policy on cooperation projects in the infrastructure sector existed before the BRI policy was signed and then increasingly under the BRI banner. However, if seen from the SULNI June 2020 data, the value of Indonesia's debt to China is around 1% and the cooperation is mostly in the field of productive infrastructure. If the policy of Indonesia-China cooperation is carried out properly and continues to be introspective both inside and outside, then development funding under the BRI banner can produce good results and can avoid debt bondage. In Indonesia, where most of the people have negative sentiments towards Chinese policies, this often happens and is framed for political consumption which is disposed of to the public through mass media and then used to lead opinions through discussions on social media. Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative Policy, China, Policy of debt-trap diplomacy, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesian. A. PRELIMINARY Policy of China's debt trap diplomacy is a new word in international relations put forward by an Indian academic in early 2017, at a time when China was still the center of global attention. This term refers to 'debt diplomacy' - within the framework of economic diplomacy - through the provision of loans from a lending country to a borrowing country, whether intentional or not, will