Indonesia suffers the consequences of cosying up to China
China helped Indonesia become the world’s dominant producer of nickel, a mineral essential for electric vehicles. As a result, it’s struggling to access the huge US market.
As Western countries scramble to secure more nickel to power the green energy transition, Indonesia’s dreams of becoming their long-term supplier are being complicated by its ties to another world power, China.
For a raw material that is so ubiquitous, nickel may seem like an odd thing to care about. But it is more important than one might think.
