Muddy yet clear-cut: How Chinese investors are turning jungle into Indonesia’s new capital

After an hour’s drive through the jungle of Borneo, you reach more jungle. Your rental van from the Balikpapan city airport shakes precariously, navigating a partial bridge washout. A roadside sign admonishes against poaching the endangered sun bears.By hour three you’ve arrived at Indonesia’s new capital, which is due to start taking over from gridlocked, polluted and seaward-sinking Jakarta in 2028.Welcome to Ibu Kota Nusantara, known locally as just Nusantara or IKN. Eventually, if all goes according to plan, it will be a brand new city housing the 287 million-person archipelago’s seat of government.For now, it is still a jungle. But investors from China are clearing away a lot of that land to build the capital. Without them, the flora and fauna would keep a firm grip on the area.