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A Decade of Diplomacy and Historical Significance in the Global Arena

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Indonesia has launched the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR), marking the first HSR in Southeast Asia, and is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) portfolio. The project, dubbed “The Whoosh,” coincides with the tenth anniversary of the BRI and will strengthen Beijing’s profile as a global connectivity catalyst.

The project was not a casual choice for Indonesia, as it was announced by President Xi Jinping ten years ago and established by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). A decade later, the high-speed bullet train linking Jakarta to Bandung began operations.

The Whoosh is a milestone for Southeast Asia’s largest country, nation, and economy, which also leads the ASEAN ten-member group. It is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and gives China an edge in any proposed extension of the line to Surabaya. The Indonesian HSR highlights China’s importance to history and neighborhood diplomacy and offers insights into Beijing’s flagship BRI and its prospects.

Bandung was the venue of the 1955 Afro-Asia Conference and played a key role in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G77 club of developing countries. The significance of the Bandung Spirit in the formative years of PRC’s diplomacy cannot be understated, and funding a project to link the host city 60 years later is a symbolic triumph too good to miss.

The Bandung Conference saw significant investments from China, including a flurry of port, pipeline, railway, and highway projects with Pakistan and Myanmar. China also built and operated ports in Sri Lanka and India, and provided infrastructure largesse to Vietnam’s first metro line and Laos’ first modern, cross-border railway.

China has built infrastructure in Cambodia, Thailand, Mecca, Ethiopia, and Europe, including special economic zones, expressways, power plants, and a modern sports stadium. It has also built Mecca’s light rail system, Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, and is in discussions with Iran for the Tehran-Isfahan HSR. China’s infrastructure credentials are solid, with scale, speed, and track record unmatched. The U.S. should focus on rebuilding domestically to strengthen its Build Back Better World pitch.

China’s overseas construction binge is unlikely to be halted by domestic headwinds, as it has successfully completed projects such as the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) in 1975, the Boten-Vientiane railway, and the South China Sea row in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Commercial and geopolitical considerations have greater bearing today, as China’s approach of serving civilian infrastructure needs and negotiating possible access later contrasts with America’s network of overseas bases and the desire to expand it.

The alternatives to BRI, such as the Blue Dot Network and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, have their work cut out for them. Rivals must go beyond criticizing and pressuring governments to snub Beijing’s overtures, as alternatives take time to break ground and deliver.

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