Ex-General Prabowo Subianto who is challenging Indonesian leader Joko Widodo for the Presidency has demanded a review of all BRI projects. Since taking office in 2014, Widodo has pushed Chinese investment to fulfil his own multi-billion-dollar drive to build much-needed roads, airports and other infrastructure across the sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Last year, China and Indonesia signed US$23 billion in Belt and Road Initiative contracts, including two hydro power plants on Borneo island and a power station on holiday hotspot Bali.

Indonesia has since said it would offer US$91 billion worth of projects - from ports to power plants - to Chinese investors at a Beijing summit in late April, just after the polls.

Chinese firms are already involved in several other ventures, including an industrial park on Sulawesi island and a US$6 billion high-speed railway between the capital Jakarta and mountain-fringed Bandung city.