Beijing is ‘sharing’ train technology worldwide, but the schemes may be coming at too high a price. Several projects have been abandoned or postponed, and some that are under way, have stoked suspicion, public animosity and mountains of debt in countries that Beijing had hoped to woo.

The problems have been compounded by broader suspicions over Chinese investment, according to Xue Gong, an analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. She says Chinese state-owned companies, built on backroom deals with government officials, are not used to the levels of political unpredictability and scrutiny encountered in Indonesia. “To what extent are they open to the public in a country where public opinion may influence the fate of the investment?” she asks.