🚆 Railway | High Speed Railways (in China or built by China)

[Mod note: This thread is for talking about high-speed railways abroad; below are first posts from the Taiwan High-Speed Rail thread]

Deep grave dig here, to talk about developments in Laos, where HRS service starts tomorrow. This pricey BRI-related project promises to further embed Laos in China’s orbit.

Guy

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The inauguration of the 422-kilometer rail link between Botan, on the Lao-Chinese border, to Vientiane, the Lao capital, promises to revise plans for greater infrastructure connectivity in mainland Southeast Asia while at the same time raising concerns about China’s growing economic clout in the region, especially in little Laos.

That’s pretty cool. I’ve been to both of those places a couple of times - until recently (I’m guessing like last month), getting from Vientiane to Boten will have been something like a 15-hour bus trip on sketchy, albeit scenic, roads.

Good for Laos’ development (although China-funded infrastructural investment obviously comes at a cost)…but a bit of a shame for travelling around what until recently was one of the last quaint places to travel in SEA.

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The tone of the story linked above is that Thailand is not jumping at the chance to participate in an extension to this rail line. The planners in China clearly want access to a sea port, and whatever Laos can provide, it’s not that.

Guy

I’m not sure about that - for what? Laos is obviously landlocked, but the closest sea ports in Thailand are quite a distance away and not especially convenient either (still need to go around peninsular Malaysia). And China is hardly short of sea ports either.

Thailand exports a lot of agricultural stuff to China (mostly via Vietnam), as does Laos. I suspect that (i.e., China’s food security) might be the primary interest, no?

No doubt Beijing would be happy to keep Laos in its orbit, as another buffer state. But the rail project is actually part of something called the GMS Rail Link, glossed in the story above as “the Greater Mekong Subregion, which comprises the six nations that share the mighty Mekong River – southern China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.” If you search “GMS Rail” you can find heaps of stories. The link via Laos is just a small (if crucial) piece of the puzzle.

Guy

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i was reading about Uganda just the other day.

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The Economist has posted a piece about Laos’s new high speed rail.

If any forumosan get get past the paywall, would you mind posting this article? Thanks in advance!

Guy

On the rails

The economics of a new China-Laos train line

Source: The economics of a new China-Laos train line | The Economist

This video is pretty interesting, especially for anyone who’s spent time in Laos. It’s apparently only 2 hours now to get from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, compared to 8-10 hours by bus previously, or 1 hour to get to Vang Vieng (very scenic former “party” town, famous for neverending Friends reruns in every bar/restaurant, drugs, and backpacker tubing deaths). I guess those places will never be the same again. :exploding_head:

The train stations have a clearly Chinese gaotie look about them (at least inside, e.g., the security procedures).

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I dont think the GMS Rail will happen. But developing countries do need infrastructure and infrastructure loans.

Up to rest of the world to offer an alternative

Also the BRI is a real mixed bag, some of the loans have political conditions, some are debt traps and some are just simple business for State Owned Enterprise. China has an excess of steel production that they need to get rid of.

Enriching the companies with the parties orbit, benefits the coffers of the party. A lot of the time its just that, rather than any kind of political manoeuvring .

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It’s interesting as well that the second language on the signs is Chinese, then English comes third. I noticed in 2015 that as you travel from south to north the second language switches to Chinese at some point, but the boundary was much further north at that point, say around Luang Namtha and Oudomxai provinces, not in Vientiane or even Luang Prabang.

And you see more weird Chinglish/Chinese stuff, like these hotel towels:

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With the French long gone, and the Americans forced out of South Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975, it’s pretty clear which imperial power is hegemonic here.

Guy

Whoah. I spent some time in all of those places in 1999. It’d definitely be weird to go back.

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From the video posted above: Station names at Vientiane and Luang Prabang displayed in Lao script (as expected) and simplified Chinese only; no romanization.

So long France and the US! We have found the Motherland!

Guy

It doesnt need to be and I would reserve a bit of judgement with BRI loans. Majority are just infrastructure loans, without any political concessions. Japan also does the same in Asia.

With the BRI, there just needs to be more competition. Developing countries are not idiots, but in many cases, China is the only player in the game.

Surprised to learn that this fancy expensive infrastructure is being used two (2) times per day. Yes, two trains heading north from the capital per day, at least according to that vlogger in the video.

Guy

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I’m guessing that’s just the passenger trains? They’re also running separate cargo trains I believe (started Dec. 3 as well, with some reefer trains for fruit and different cargo-only stations).

Yes.

Guy

Yeah, there were quite a lot of changes even between 2014 and 2015 when I visited (like the addition of a Dairy Queen in Vientiane, and a lot more guesthouses in Nong Khiaw). I can’t imagine how it was in 1999!