Although Sino-Japanese rivalry over a mooted high-speed rail project between Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia has received considerable media fanfare, its real significance is somewhat overstated.
While seen as a political victory for China, which gatecrashed Tokyo’s long-nurtured plan to export its Shinkansen high-speed railway, the project does very little to actually improve the overall state of Indonesian infrastructure. Nor does it really constitute any form of a “Silk Road” that reduces trading costs.
The awarding of the project — which is no longer technically a high-speed service — does not automatically guarantee the winner the right to future projects in Java.