Who will shoulder the debts behind Indonesia’s China-backed Whoosh railway?

Indonesia’s finance ministry is preparing to absorb debt payments for Whoosh, the China-funded high-speed railway connecting Jakarta and Bandung, in a move officials say will ease financial pressure on the state-owned enterprises that built and operate the line. The government has argued that the burden is manageable after the debt was restructured over 80 years, requiring annual instalments of about 1 trillion rupiah (US$56.5 million). But the plan has also raised concerns that taxpayers are...