Finnish developers push for Chinese-built tunnel to Estonia despite souring mood towards Beijing

Project linking Helsinki and Tallinn has been plagued by controversy, but sponsor is undeterred, saying funding is ‘not Chinese, it’s international’

China’s ties with Russia have tarnished its image in Finland and Estonia, and EU is clamping down on Chinese investment in the bloc amid tensions

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A plan to link Finland’s Helsinki, shown here, with Estonian capital city Tallinn has raised alarms in Baltic intelligence circles. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:00pm, 17 Mar 2024

Finnish developers are pushing ahead with plans to bore a tunnel between capital city Helsinki and Estonia’s Tallinn, and they still want Chinese companies to build it.

The 100km (62-mile) project would link the two countries separated by the Gulf of Finland, slashing the journey time from two hours by ferry to just 20 minutes by high-speed rail.

It has been years in the works, beset by delays and controversy over the reported involvement of Chinese money and know-how. But even with the mood towards China in both Finland and Estonia souring, the company’s founders plan to stick to their guns.

“For the actual construction, we have of course not made any final decisions, but we are looking very favourably towards Chinese construction companies,” said Kustaa Valtonen, founding partner of Finest Bay Area Development Ltd, the project sponsor.

“The Chinese are leading the game in high-speed railways by a long, long, long way at the moment,” he added.

Valtonen has been talking for “quite a long time” with China Railway Engineering Corporation, the state-owned enterprise that built the high-speed line linking Winter Olympic sites in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in north China’s Hebei province.

Trains on that line hurtle through tunnels under the Great Wall of China at speeds of up to 350km/h.