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China Railway
ChinaPolitics

China to boost rail links to Xinjiang and Tibet, with eye on supply chains and energy security

  • Senior Chinese rail planner says the country aims to fill in the ‘blanks’ in railway networks to implement ‘major national strategies’
  • Beijing has ‘big plans’ for the western regions, which serve as gateway for European trade and are crucial for border security, researcher says

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A passenger takes a selfie in front of a bullet train during the opening of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway in southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region in June 2021. Photo: Xinhua
William Zheng

China will step up construction of strategic railroad links in the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet in the coming years to strengthen its hold over its westernmost regions, according to a senior Chinese rail planner.

“The rail network layout still needs to be improved. There are still many places in the western regions left undeveloped, and the major strategic channels for entering and exiting Tibet and Xinjiang need to be strengthened,” said Liu Wenxian, a senior official with China Railway Group’s planning department.

In an interview with The People’s Rail, a newspaper affiliated with the state-owned rail operator, Liu said the priority was to “strengthen the construction of strategic links and effectively guarantee the implementation of major national strategies”.

“[We will] focus on strengthening strategic trunk channels, such as those from Xinjiang to Tibet, and fill in the ‘blanks’ in railway networks in key western regions so as to comprehensively improve the multidirectional connectivity between Xinjiang, Tibet and the inland,” Liu was quoted as saying.

Liu said this was part of China’s plan to strengthen transport links to ensure energy and supply chain security.

Beijing has “big plans” for Xinjiang and Tibet, according to a Tsinghua University researcher who studies ethnic minority issues in China.

“Xinjiang is the gateway for the strategic China-Europe freight trains, while the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is extremely important to China’s western border security,” said the researcher, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic.

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