High-speed railway integrates world

Connecting Asia with Europe and North America using high-speed rail is a great idea. China has the ability to cooperate with other countries to transform the idea into reality, despite the obvious difficulties, says an article by the 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

Some Chinese experts have said that China is willing to cooperate with Russia, Canada and the United States to build a high-speed railway network connecting Europe, Asia and North America. Construction of a high-speed railway linking Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, with Southeast Asia will kick off next month.

The difficulties in capital, technology, geology, engineering, climate and geopolitics are conceivable.

The West built today’s world order using warships at sea. China, India and other emerging Asian countries will make changes to the world order by building a more integrated land transportation system.

The high-speed railway is much faster and more reliable than maritime transportation and cheaper than air transportation.

Hundreds years ago, the West overcame political obstacles by force. Today, regional cooperative and development organizations and platforms, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, can foster an agreement on the trans-continental transportation system among different countries.

The colonial powers’ maritime war and transportation system benefited themselves, and the world order built on that system is not fair for the developing and least developed countries. But the high-speed railway system, which will be built by different countries working together, can help make the modern world order fairer for the international community as a whole.

China has mature high-speed railway technologies, plenty of technicians and workers. The diversified geological conditions in China have helped Chinese engineers and workers accumulate the necessary experience in handling different construction conditions around the world. The great project can also help digest China’s serious overcapacity in the iron and steel industries.

The project connecting China and Southeast Asia is only the first step to transform the plan from words to reality.