China's Westward One Belt One Road Strategy

Appix

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Registered Member
The Vientiane–Boten Railway is a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
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railway that runs for 414 kilometres (257 mi) in northern
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, between the capital of Laos
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and
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on the border with
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. It will be connected to Chinese rail system by
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. It will be majority-owned by China, financed by Chinese funds, and built by
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.

Laos is the only
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in
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, which hinders trade of goods. A railway link through Laos would greatly reduce cargo transit times and transportation costs between Laos and China. The railway would also be a link in the
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network, as well as a program within the
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.

The China-Laos railway has a length 414 km with bridges of 62 km and tunnels of 198 km, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and capital Vientiane. The operating speed on the route is designed at 160 km per hour.

The China-Laos railway was promoted by leaders of the two countries as an interconnectivity project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The construction of the railway began in December 2016, and the railway is expected to open to traffic in December, 2021.

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Nearly 80 percent of the construction of the China-Laos railway has been completed, said Lao Deputy Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone on Saturday.

The railway will serve as a key infrastructure for the economic corridor between the two countries and help boost trade, investment and tourism, said Sonexay at the China-ASEAN Expo held in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

With a designed speed of 160 km per hour, the China-Laos railway is expected to be fully operational in 2021.

Ground-breaking ceremony of the railway was held in December 2015, and the construction of the whole route officially started a year later.

China had invested a total of 12.5 billion US dollars in 782 projects in Laos by the end of June this year since 1988, making it the biggest investor in Laos, said Sonexay.

Chinese investments in Laos are mainly focused on infrastructure projects like hydropower plants, highways and power grids, according to the deputy prime minister.

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Some photo's of 2019 construction Vientiane-Boten railway.

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Appix

Senior Member
Registered Member
Yuxi-Mohan railway that will connect Central Yunnan with the city of Mohan at the border with Laos (Boten) is also under construction since September 2015. This inland railway will connect with Boten-Vientiane railway when completed in 2022.

Yuxi–Mohan railway

The Yuxi–Mohan railway or Yumo railway (
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: 玉磨铁路;
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: 玉磨鐵路;
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: yùmó tiělù), is a railway under construction in
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of
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. The line is slated to run 503.9 km (313 mi) from
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in central Yunnan to
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, a town in
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on the border with
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in the
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of southern Yunnan.
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The Yumo railway is designed to "provide efficient, safe, low-carbon, affordable, railway transport" within Yunnan Province.
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Once connected to the railway to be built in Laos, the Yumo railway would become part of the
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and carry traffic across the
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.
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Early stage construction began on September 1, 2015.
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The project is estimated to cost
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46.46 billion.
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The railway will be electrified, and will have double-track from Yuxi to
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and single-track from Jinghong to Mohan.
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Cities and towns along route would include Yuxi,
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, Jinghong and Mohan.

Construction

Construction on two early-stage segments began on September 1, 2015 with the full-scale construction on the line on 19 April 2016. According to Xinhua News Agency in Yuxi, the line is scheduled to be 507.4 km long, costing 51,609 million yuan, reach maximum speeds of 160 km/h, taking 6 years to complete construction, i.e. 2022. Running times are scheduled to be 1.5 hours from
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to
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, to be within 3 hours from
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to
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, to be about 3 hours from
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to
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, and 5 hrs from
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to
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. There will be 13 stations once the line is completed including.

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Appix

Senior Member
Registered Member
The Vientiane–Boten Railway is a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
railway that runs for 414 kilometres (257 mi) in northern
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, between the capital of Laos
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
on the border with
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. It will be connected to Chinese rail system by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. It will be majority-owned by China, financed by Chinese funds, and built by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

Laos is the only
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, which hinders trade of goods. A railway link through Laos would greatly reduce cargo transit times and transportation costs between Laos and China. The railway would also be a link in the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
network, as well as a program within the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

The China-Laos railway has a length 414 km with bridges of 62 km and tunnels of 198 km, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and capital Vientiane. The operating speed on the route is designed at 160 km per hour.

The China-Laos railway was promoted by leaders of the two countries as an interconnectivity project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The construction of the railway began in December 2016, and the railway is expected to open to traffic in December, 2021.

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Some new photo's of construction China-Laos railway.

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A worker of the Power China Sinohydro Bureau 14 Co., Ltd. fabricates rail beams for the China-Laos railway project, in Vangvieng, Laos, Feb. 15, 2020. The China-Laos railway construction, an important Belt and Road project, is being steadily carried out with epidemic prevention measures employed, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. told Xinhua earlier this week. (Xinhua)

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Workers of the China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group work in a tunnel of China-Laos railway project, near Luang Prabang, Laos, Feb. 14, 2020. The China-Laos railway construction, an important Belt and Road project, is being steadily carried out with epidemic prevention measures employed, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. told Xinhua earlier this week. (Xinhua)

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A staff member of the China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group measures temperature of a worker entering a construction site of China-Laos railway project, in northern Laos, Feb. 14, 2020. The China-Laos railway construction, an important Belt and Road project, is being steadily carried out with epidemic prevention measures employed, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. told Xinhua earlier this week. (Xinhua)

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A staff member of the China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group disinfects the dining hall at a construction site of China-Laos railway project in northern Laos, Feb. 14, 2020. The China-Laos railway construction, an important Belt and Road project, is being steadily carried out with epidemic prevention measures employed, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. told Xinhua earlier this week. (Xinhua)

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Last edited:

Jono

Junior Member
Registered Member
the route is designed at 160 km per hour. very sensible idea.
this speed is already very good, and affordable too, considering the overall economic situation of Laos.
Hopefully I will be among the first to travel by this route once it is open to the public.
Flying to Kunming from HK , and then board the train to Vientiane , then Bangkok. A trip to look forward to. :cool:
 

MrCrazyBoyRavi

Junior Member
Registered Member
Watching old Deng Videos, I wonder if he would have approved for OBOR projects. He seemed much focused on growing while maintaining low key. Xi looks more outspoken and flamboyant.
 

supercat

Major
China’s ‘Health Silk Road’ Gets A Boost From COVID-19

Transport corridors are coldly indifferent to what travels along them; whether it’s goods or people, armies or disease. The transportation networks that are being set up today for trade could be used tomorrow for conflict; the lanes through which jolly tourists flow could also be vectors for lethal pathogens. This has been the story of the trade and the Silk Road from the beginning, and today it’s no different.

While the COVID-19 epidemic has spread out of China along the routes of the Belt and Road (BRI), those same corridors, ports and logistics hubs are now being used to provide medical support to partner countries in need as Beijing attempts to position itself as a global leader in healthcare—a move which Chinese President Xi Jinping calls the “
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.”

On March 21, a train loaded with 110,000 medical masks and 776 protective suites departed from Yiwu, in the east of China, bound for COVID-19-ravaged Spain, 17 days and 13,000 kilometers away. This was the same
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that made headlines transporting goods across continents, linking east and west. Today, it is moving life-saving supplies.


The China-Europe rail network, which now connects dozens of cities in China with those in Europe, is both a viable solution to ship high-value, heavyweight goods between the two regions cheaper than air and faster than sea, but is also a physical vehicle for Chinese diplomacy and, at times, blatant propaganda. When Beijing wants to promote an enhanced partnership with another nation via the BRI they send them a train—
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.

“Beijing is using the network of recipient states that it has cultivated through the Belt and Road to legitimize its response to COVID-19,” said
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of D.C.’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The train services to Spain make great headlines, but it's also a little ironic because shipping by air would have been faster and more appropriate for an emergency response.”

This point was driven home as the Jack Ma Foundation sent five-times as many masks to Spain much faster by air.


“It'll be interesting to watch China's ongoing “charm offensive" with the provision of health equipment and whether this soft-power push can turn the tables on Beijing's critics,” said
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of Greece’s Institute of International Economic Relations.

Propaganda value aside, the providing of medical equipment in a time of crisis to a BRI partner via rail shows that the network keeps with one of its foundational pillars: to support person-to-person connections between China and the rest of the world. More pragmatically, you may as well fill these trains with something, as the subsidy-dependent network has an embarrassing tendency of
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.
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These trains are also one of the few sectors of the Belt and Road that are still in operation, as the rest of the network has been more or less shut down since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most BRI-related projects are heavily dependent on China for support: building materials come from China, workers come from China, and the funding comes from China. With 130 countries closing their doors to Chinese citizens and people flying from China along with supply chain disruptions from Chinese factories not running, the Belt and Road has been
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:

“Work has stopped along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone has come to a standstill, the Payra coal power plant in Bangladesh has been delayed and projects across Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar have been stuck in holding patterns.”

As dozens of Belt and Road projects sit idle around the world, readjustment on the repayment in loans to build them will need to be made, and the chances of some of them succumbing to circumstances and
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is not out of the question—a state of affairs that is not uncommon along the BRI in even the best of times. Even before COVID-19 hit, large contingents of the Belt and Road were
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, and now the future of many projects is looking even more bleak.

“The recovery of China's domestic economy will be Beijing's utmost priority in 2020 and that will require much-needed resources, and the BRI will be hard to sell domestically,” Tonchev explained. “All the countries along BRI routes will find themselves in a tight spot and there will be an ever-growing demand for infrastructure but extremely limited resources available in the wake of the outbreak.”
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However, picking up knocked-down countries has always been a core part of the Belt and Road’s strategy. If we look back through the history of the initiative we see China stepping into countries like Greece, Italy and Sri Lanka and trying to rebuild their shattered economic realities...in exchange for a bigger footprint for Chinese companies, more leverage for Beijing, and, of course, piles of debt. We only need to remember that China’s takeover of Greece’s Pireaus Port was a
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.

Hillman says that China’s moves during the pandemic are “orchestrating a Belt and Road echo chamber. Recipients need assistance and they're praising Beijing's response [to the outbreak] to get it. China has been able to get statements of praise from Pakistan, Serbia, Ethiopia and Italy—all countries it has cultivated political and economic ties with through BRI.”

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of the Netherland’s Clingendael Institute outlines three potential long-term impacts on the BRI from the Covid-19 pandemic:

1) A greater role for state-supported Chinese companies in global sea and air transport, while some of their more market vulnerable foreign competitors may go bankrupt or downsize.

2) Increased pressure on China’s relations with developing countries that built infrastructure with Chinese money and struggle to repay their debts.

3) An additional motive for China to take more of a leadership role in multilateral platforms, such as the G20, the World Bank, and the IMF.

The world has been left reeling by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the apparent opportunity to rearrange the geopolitical pecking order has revealed itself. As the U.S. and China exchange barbs over responsibility for the virus, Beijing is taking action along the Belt and Road to repair its image, reinforce ties with allies, and possibly undermine what has been the dominant global power structure for years.

“China is now trying to play up the benefits of connecting with the Belt and Road by offering medical supplies,” said Hillman. “But when the dust settles, will nations and companies see greater risk or reward in forging connections with China? I suspect the the former, but we'll have to see.”

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