Desperate for Investment, Indonesia Plays China vs Japan

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After more than five years of feasibility studies and high-level lobbying, Japanese officials thought they were on the brink of bringing bullet trains to Indonesia. Then China showed up.

“Suddenly, the minister of state-owned enterprises announced they had made something with the Chinese,” said Hiromichi Muraoka, senior Indonesia representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the country’s foreign aid arm. “That surprised me.”