The necessity of mastering the Chinese language, Indonesia’s second foreign language, has made it a priority subject among foreign languages in the Department of International Relations (IR) in many universities in Indonesia. The ideal textbook for the subject can boost learning and student competence and achievement in mastering the language. The selection of textbooks has not taken into consideration the background and motivation of students, learning objectives, frequency and length of study and student expectations. This paper discusses the need for a textbook to be used by IR majors in Indonesia. The data collection is populated through the distribution of questionnaires to eight universities that hold Chinese language classes for IR majors. The study concludes that the students expected a textbook to contain appropriate and applicable formal and informal language acquisition materials related to IR. The study looks at the cultural knowledge of the destination, lessons on the writing of Chinese characters and grammar exercises. Regarding the order of topics for learning Chinese by IR students, the students perceived that the right order would be: greetings, self-introduction, letters and numbers, time, names of days and months, daily activities, transportation, public facilities, directions and instructions, professions, international relations, politics and economy.