How Japan Lost Indonesia to China (And Why They Are Glad They Did)
For years, Japan painstakingly surveyed the jungle to build Indonesia’s first high-speed rail. Then, in 2015, China swooped in at the eleventh hour and stole the contract. How? Beijing offered a deal that was financially impossible to refuse: A massive train built with zero government guarantees and zero risk to the Indonesian taxpayer. It was a humiliating geopolitical defeat for Tokyo. But fast-forward to 2026, and the train (named “Whoosh”) is drowning in billions of dollars of debt, operating at a massive loss, and currently under investigation for corruption.
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48 Comments
Bribe
There's a theory that China only lend their money to corrupt countries that they can't pay it back,so china in the end can confiscate their valuable asset like port
Thank goodness Philippines choose Japan for it's subway project
When will nations learn not to trust China's development projects after so many previous project failures from nations that trusted the China-CCP?
If they'd actually gone through the original Japanese study that had been carried out at the expense of $3M, they'd have realized something else – Japanese model requires absolute state intervention in land acquisition as that is how it has been carried out in Japan. What Japan does is countries where it builds metro systems and HSR systems – for example, land required between two stations in a dense urban – high cost area, is mounted onto a separate entity, and that entity gets a share of ticket revenue and is also responsible for managing the station itself, generating revenue through concession shops etc. Then, the additional land purchased surrounding the stations is developed and long term leases are signed up.
What Japan model ensures is near zero chance of financial failure.
No doubt that the Indonesian officials were bribed by the Chinese.
INDONESIA IS CORRUPTED BY PRESIDENT AND MINISTERS
JAPAN—0.01%
CHINA—2.00%
THIS IS ISLAM CALLED COUNTRY
🎌🇯🇵 love easy 💰 Hard work 💭🤔 heeeeei 😁
Indonesians don’t like Japan. Muslims and Japanese simply don’t mix.
Corruption. And China know how to deal with it.
Desember lalu saya sudah coba itu Whoosh, memang cepat sih itu keretanya bro
I heard there's technology transfer to Indonesian local train company from China when the Japanese don't want to, so the deal went to china. But to pay it until 60years later, i think the price for the knowledge so high
If this had have been built buy Japan, it would still be undercconstruction – look t what the have achieved in India – about 10km per year … LOL
What do you mean a "3 hour journey"????
Maybe in the middle of the night…? 🤣
This channel is obviously anti-China.
this is such bad AI writing
Almost 0 percent interest rate loan? Thats like free loan package
brotha its peak indo corruption 🤡🤡🤡🤡
因为穷，日本货虚高的价格谁用得起啊，更不用说日本货也就那个水平。
各位这么爱日本货，想知道丰田汽车在你们国家卖多少钱啊，中国人不爱日本货，所以中国的Camry /RAV4只需要2万美元就能开走了，你这么爱日本，日本爱你吗，笑死啦韭菜们。
They should've chosen to work with Japanese. China strategy to make take over their infrastructure by make them drown in debt, their global strqategy.
The Japanese didn't bribe Indonesian officials like the Chinese did. That's why.
Could you have mispronounced Fuxing any worse? Sheesh.
I dont see why indo would take China deal over Japan's. Japan offered a lower price + 0.1% interest(basically free) not to mentioned japanese expertise on rail reliability and expertise on running a profitable business without state funds
It fail miserably cuz jokowi want to do a one up-manship to the rest of ASEAN ! He failed and the other of his failed pet projects the building of a new capital in nusantara @ Kalimantan island to replace Jakarta.
It was to be funded entirely by private sector, but the truth no foreign investors came in, the govt did an about turn to fund the whole infrastructure but cuz of the economic downturn, the project stall, some area were reclaimed back by the jungle. Most Indonesian were disappointed by the turn of events cuz at the end of the day, the ordinary Indonesian citizens has to foot the bills by new high taxes !
Welcome to Indonesia (a failed state) after more to 80 yrs of independence, the purchasing power of the people in Indonesia is very low , the world bank says Indonesia poor is nearly 80 millions of it's 280 millions total. Even Bali has lost it's tourism industries to nextdoor neighbors Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
The majority of comments I see on the Japanese internet regarding this topic is, “Never trust or help Indonesia again.” Although there were a few Japanese who were actually involved in the project defending their Indonesian counterparts saying that their Indonesian counterparts had no say and were angry and disappointed as they were. It was the Indonesian government’s decision, and the higher ups just went for the seemingly cheaper plan instead of the rational one, and officials probably made money personally off of that decision.
This is just bad decision and ego clash.
When Chinese trains start wearing their parts and China don’t send them, Indonesia will cry without end.
My friend sells Lexus in the US. He would suggest customs to go buy a Kia if they start asking/talking about the price.
India choose the Japanese and the trial run is gonna start next year. The loco pilots currently training in Japan.
India and Japan started their HSR project back in 2017 and has yet to put a HSR train on a single line in 2026. Indonesia-China won starting operations back in 2023 🙂
Because China lied to Indonesia as usual and greedy Indonesia believed China. That’s all.
Let this be a warning for all that nothing good can happen when doing anything involving China.
Hahahaha.. china always good at promoting it's successes but after starting operations problems arise putting the so called successes to shame! China is the best in propaganda 🤣
chinas playbook is lowballing in bidding process then asking more money during construction. been doing that in any countries.
Japan was lucky not to participate in this project. Now, Japan's Shinkansen (bullet train) is scheduled to open in India, not Indonesia. India chose Japan for its technological prowess and safety. Indians even came to Japan for driver training.
CHINA TRAIN NOW . . REGRET LATER. INDONISIAN LOVE CHINESE THAN JAPANESE TRAIN IT'S CHEAPER BUT . . 😢
Japan/India high speed train construction is a testament in contrast to the Indonesia Whoosh. Whoosh has moved 12 million passengers in its first 2 years of operation. What's this video touting? Corruption? If so, please provide a glimpse of people and company involved.
China underestimates project costs to win contracts, then continuously demands additional payments, causing construction expenses to surge.
The host country, left with little room to maneuver, has no choice but to rely on Chinese loans. By the time the project is completed using those loans, it is burdened with massive financial debt.
This is China’s Belt and Road policy.
Actually, the one who lost is Indonesia because it has been a disaster for them financial. Whoosh is the name of the rail, and that is the only sound they heard of the money flying out of Indonesia.
Vietname want to start HSR project in 2025, Japan didi not go for it. That mean Vietname & Japan made the right decidion, so were Indonedia & China. If Indonesia made a mistake ignore Japan, Vietnam would made the right decision to pick Japan.
I have travelled on it from jakarta airport to Bandung city and I found it very efficient ,convenient and comfortable except for the car ride from airport to Halim station which is about 50 minutes
Here is the thing, i used whoosh a couple of times travelling between jakarta and bandung. The journey to and from the terminals are horrendous… the travelling inside the high speed train is marvellous though…
As an Indonesian, I am very disappointed with this fraudulent high-speed train project and how the corrupt Indonesian government handles it. Until now, the Indonesian government is confused about how to pay off the debt and high interest charged by CINA. The negative effect is that the state budget is affected and is borne by the people. In the end, the Indonesian people bear the burden🥀 The expensive ticket prices have not been able to cover the state's losses. Ironically, one of the ministers who desperately supports this project and manages this project, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, said that this high-speed train project was rotten from the start🥀
まぁー…日本政府や民間企業も下心が無かったとは言えません。あばよくば競合に勝ってシェアを獲得したかったことでしょう。
でも決まったら責任もってやるし、インドネシア国民の生活インフラに貢献できる嬉しさや喜びはあったと思います。
これもまた日本政府や企業の生真面目な性格がインドネシア政府のニーズに合わなかったことだけの話。
でも賄賂とか談合はしたくないですね。
It's funny to see that china increased the interest rate in first opportunity they got and eventually got every rights that knock japan out of the woosh project
This is called I got you by the neck now you will do whatever I say
其实高铁本身就不是欠发达国家用的起的，高铁的维护成本太高了，以中国的经济水平➕人口数量，以及中国能自主制造高铁的能力，这么多优势下中国中西部大部分高铁线路都还是亏损状态，就这还一堆中国人抱怨高铁票太贵。而印尼的经济连中国都不如。我认为穷国修高铁还不如修普通铁路加飞机场，因为高铁唯一的优势就是快，然而很不幸穷人的时间其实并不值钱。
Indonesia seems to like China😂
China offered a lower price than Japan for the first time
China, which succeeded in bidding, then continued to raise construction costs and eventually became more expensive than the unit price offered by Japan
Indonesia was also beaten by the Chinese way
Silly Indonesia