The land that will host one of the four stations of Indonesia’s first high-speed railway lies in the middle of a tea plantation outside Bandung, the country’s third largest city. Yet for such a high-profile project, there does not appear to be much work going on at the site.
The railway is one of the few ongoing projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Indonesia. Launched in January 2016, the planned 142-kilometre railway connecting Jakarta and Bandung was supposed to demonstrate China’s expanding economic prowess and influence.