Inside the Indonesian boomtowns powering the world’s electric vehicles

Inside the Indonesian boomtowns powering the world’s electric vehicles

As W.H. Wong hugged his family goodbye before leaving for work on a quiet morning this spring, he felt a lump in his throat. He was headed more than 2,500 miles away, to an Indonesian island so remote that locals say it’s one of the places where spirits go to abandon their children. After two weeks at home in Wenxi, a rural county of 350,000 in China’s northern Shanxi Province, the 39-year-old was once again making the grueling 36-hour journey t…