On Bali, an island thick with beach tourists, surfing instructor Amri Anjulius is holding out for a 60km (37.3-mile) urban subway to relieve pressure on a maze of two-lane streets, where cars crawl and motor scooters weave between them.
Like many Indonesians, he believes China will be at the forefront of efforts to expand the travel network across the archipelago nation’s 6,000 inhabited islands, home to 285 million people. That confidence stems from China’s role in building Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway on Java, the world’s most populous island.
“You ask the government and if they say it’s China, then it’s China,” said Anjulius, 41, who has sweated the Bali traffic for 16 years. “I think these projects are for China.”
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The China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is already building the US$20 million Bali Urban Subway alongside local firms, with the first line expected to open in 2031.
The project follows the 2-year-old, US$7.27 billion Java high-speed railway, known as Whoosh, praised by Chinese and Indonesian officials as a possible exemplar of the future – though locals fret over the debt it has racked up.
Millions of passengers have already travelled on the line connecting Jakarta and Bandung, the capital of West Java province. The journey takes 40 minutes instead of three hours by road, with no operational hitches reported so far.
Chinese firms have invested heavily in railways from Central Asia to Europe, but Beijing has touted the high-speed project in Java as one of the flagship achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative – a wide-ranging effort to build trade links across scores of countries.
The red and white trains – featuring wood panelling and plush seats on the inside – reach speeds of up to 220mph (350km/h) and have enough cachet in Jakarta to spawn Whoosh-label souvenirs.
“In terms of service for time efficiency, the mode of transportation has been performing well,” said Roseno Aji Affandi, a Bina Nusantara University professor who uses Whoosh.
Indonesia is preparing to enter negotiations with Chinese partners in October to discuss expanding the high-speed rail network to eastern Java’s Surabaya, the archipelago’s second largest city.
To improve public transport, Indonesians interviewed by the Post said they would broadly welcome more Chinese investment.
“I think there isn’t a risk, as far as I know,” said Muh Rafi Al’Ayyuh, a 22-year-old electrical engineer at Balikpapan University in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. “I know the Chinese build things that are good, as in quality, and as far as I know it’s (mostly) tech.”
In the same city of Balikpapan – where getting around still means relying on buses and ride-share apps – 28-year-old Pras Atmaja wants to see a railway built.
Indonesia’s state railway operator has invited investors to apply for a project that will involve building an airport train and urban railway in the partially completed new national capital, a 2.5-hour drive away.
Atmaja, who often travels around the country, noted the growing presence of Chinese infrastructure projects but worries that “reports of debt” could sap public enthusiasm – not only for Whoosh but for other China-led projects.
Whoosh has incurred billions of US dollars in debt because of cost overruns, late completion and – some Indonesians believe – competition from the cheaper Argo Parahyangan railway, which takes about three hours from Jakarta to Bandung.
Indonesia is considering renegotiating the debt for Whoosh, as ticket sales alone cannot cover payments.
The joint venture Whoosh operator KCIC and the consortium that controls it lost roughly US$280 million in 2024 followed by US$107 million in the first half of 2025, according to a September 26 study by the Indonesian research institution Centre of Economic and Law Studies.
About three-quarters of the project was financed through loans from the China Development Bank at a “competitive” 2 per cent interest on the principal and 3.4 per cent on overrun costs, the study found.
“I’m not sure about the sustainability, because the gap between revenue and payable debt is still quite large,” said Aji, the Whoosh rider from Java.
The sovereign wealth fund, Nusantara Capital Investment Management Agency, is formulating a plan to restructure the debt, according to the Indonesian stock exchange news website IDN Financials in July.
Debt relief, however, would largely hinge on keeping fares affordable for passengers in the developing country, said Song Seng Wun, an economic adviser at the Singapore-based financial services firm CGS. Whoosh tickets currently sell for 150,000 (US$9) to 600,000 rupiah – higher than standard railway fares that typically cost below 100,000 rupiah.
“It’s a case of getting more ridership, which depends on the price point riders can accept,” Song said. It is unclear today whether “average workers” can afford Whoosh fares, he added.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
