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How China is building railways in a bid to fast-track diplomacy
- Railway diplomacy is a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, especially in developing countries
- Projects include a line connecting Vientiane to Kunming and a high-speed link from Jakarta to Bandung
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China hosts the third Belt and Road Forum this week, marking the 10-year anniversary of its multinational investment initiative. In the final of a three-part series, Laura Zhou looks at how Beijing is pushing ahead with railway diplomacy in developing countries.
On the desolate northern outskirts of the Laotian capital Vientiane, a grand new railway station with a traditional curved roof seems to be sending a message: this country is going places.
From here, a Chinese-built railway line costing nearly US$6 billion connects Laos – one of the region’s poorest nations – with China, the world’s second largest economy. The Laotian leadership hopes it will bring new jobs and foreign investment, but also transformation for the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia.
The railway line stretches some 1,035km (about 640 miles) from Vientiane to Kunming, capital of fast-growing Yunnan province in China’s southwest. It is the first leg of a trans-Asian link that policymakers in Beijing have long envisioned will extend China’s vast railway network to Southeast Asia, a region now crucial to its diplomatic and economic agenda.
From Southeast Asia to Central Europe and Africa, railway diplomacy is a key part of China’s global infrastructure investment plan, the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing touts it as an alternative model for economic development, especially in developing countries struggling with a low standard of living and lacking in infrastructure.
China does have an edge when it comes to building railways – it had some 155,000km of them as of the end of last year. That includes 42,000km of high-speed railway line – the most in the world.
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