Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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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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