Whoosh Train Woes Are Indonesia's, Not A China Debt Trap

2025-10-31 03:09:26

(MENAFN- Asia Times) When President Joko Widodo shocked Japan by choosing China to build Indonesia's first high-speed rail line in 2015, he wasn't surrendering to Beijing's influence. He was asserting independence.

The Chinese offer to build the Jakarta–Bandung railway-now known as Whoosh-came without government guarantees or direct fiscal burden. It looked like a pragmatic decision by a rising democracy eager to modernize on its own terms.

A decade later, that decision is being reinterpreted as a geopolitical cautionary tale. Cost overruns, debt negotiations and corruption allegations have revived talk of a“Chinese debt trap” in Indonesia. But that narrative misses the point.

The Whoosh is not China's story-it's Indonesia's. The project reflects Indonesia's ambitions, its bureaucracy and its ongoing struggle to manage complexity – not Beijing's supposed strategy of entrapment.

This month, Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) opened an investigation into possible mark-ups and irregularities in the project's budget. Former Coordinating Minister Mahfud MD alleged that construction costs ballooned to $52 million per kilometer-three times higher than the cost of building similar lines in China.

The KPK has yet to confirm any wrongdoing, but the very need for such an investigation underscores where the real problems lie: at home.

The Whoosh's financial structure was no secret. Of the total US$7.3 billion cost, about 75% was financed through loans from the China Development Bank (CDB) at modest rates-around 2% on principal and 3.4% on overrun costs.

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