Full steam ahead for Chinese rail diplomacy?

A freight rail link to Laos that opened earlier this month is the latest effort to boost land connectivity with Southeast Asia and other important trading partners

Observers say such networks can help China boost its international profile – but may also help bypass increasing tensions in major shipping routes

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A freight train leaves Kunming in Yunnan province for Laos along the 1,035km China-Laos Railway in December. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:30pm, 3 Jan 2022Updated: 8:41pm, 3 Jan 2022

China has launched a new freight rail route from a manufacturing and export hub on the east coast to Laos in the latest example of “railway diplomacy”.

Beijing views rail links as a major pillar of the Belt and Road Initiative, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure and investment programme that aims to connect Asia, Europe and Africa with a network of roads, ports and railways.

With the longest operational high-speed railway network in the world, China also hopes to export its railway technology to developing countries.

“The goals are quite simple – the export of Chinese standards, facilitating the going global of Chinese capital and industries, and helping solve domestic issues related to overcapacity,” said Karl Yan, an associate professor with Zhejiang University.

Dragan Pavlicevic, an associate professor with Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, said Beijing was looking to improve China’s international profile by exporting railway technology.

“It was also meant … to showcase China’s support for the development and growth of others through development of infrastructure, promotion of trade, and investment, transfer of its technology and know-how and others,” he said. “One could say that railway projects in that sense are also meant to contribute to China’s soft power.”