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Belt and Road Initiative
EconomyGlobal Economy

Thailand wants to build a brand new shipping route. Why isn’t China buying?

  • The Land Bridge project, a proposed route for shipping that could bypass the Malacca Strait, is being shopped by the Thai government as it seeks financing
  • If built, the bridge could reshape the economy of Southeast Asia – but China has not shown a willingness to put up the cash

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Thailand’s land bridge project, with the potential to open a new shipping route, has not received the attention from China many expected. Illustration by Lau Ka-kuen
Frank Chenin ShanghaiandKandy Wongin Hong Kong

When Beijing goes on the hunt for weak links in its economic chain, the Malacca Strait is a place Chinese officials and academics often cite as a point of exceptional vulnerability. Many essential materials – particularly crude oil and minerals, which carry vast strategic importance – are shipped through it.

For decades Chinese authorities have searched for alternatives, investing heavily in gas pipelines from Central Asia, the China-Pakistan economic corridor, a pipeline linking Myanmar’s ports in the Andaman Sea with Southwest China’s Yunnan province and a network of China-Europe freight trains.

The latest option to come across Beijing’s desk is the Land Bridge project in Thailand, which uses rail links to connect the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand and bypass Malacca entirely.

The project, a replacement for the more controversial and expensive Kra Canal, was brought up by Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin when he attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in mid-October.

At the forum, Srettha went so far as to scrawl a simple illustration of one projected path for the land bridge, which he posted online.

China has long been viewed as a potential patron and user, since a vast majority of its crude oil is presently sourced from the Middle East.

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