Features
05.12.23![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/54756_sm.jpg?itok=TO8SSLHA)
Investing in Tourism in Xinjiang, Beijing Seeks New Ways to Control the Region’s Culture
In a county where authorities ran multiple internment camps in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, the local government has commissioned a new set of buildings for a very different demographic: tourists. These sites and services, which were...
Books
09.17.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/koll-sys.jpg?itok=1MWk6byE)
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Railroads and the Transformation of China
Harvard University Press: As a vehicle to convey both the history of modern China and the complex forces still driving the nation’s economic success, rail has no equal. Railroads and the Transformation of China is the first comprehensive history, in any language, of railroad operation from the last decades of the Qing Empire to the present.China’s first fractured lines were built under semicolonial conditions by competing foreign investors. The national system that began taking shape in the 1910s suffered all the ills of the country at large: warlordism and Japanese invasion, Chinese partisan sabotage, the Great Leap Forward when lines suffered in the “battle for steel,” and the Cultural Revolution, during which Red Guards were granted free passage to “make revolution” across the country, nearly collapsing the system. Elisabeth Köll’s expansive study shows how railroads survived the rupture of the 1949 Communist revolution and became an enduring model of Chinese infrastructure expansion.The railroads persisted because they were exemplary bureaucratic institutions. Through detailed archival research and interviews, Köll builds case studies illuminating the strength of rail administration. Pragmatic management, combining central authority and local autonomy, sustained rail organizations amid shifting political and economic priorities. As Köll shows, rail provided a blueprint for the past 40 years of ambitious, semipublic business development and remains an essential component of the People’s Republic of China’s politically charged, technocratic economic model for China’s future.{chop}
Conversation
02.15.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/49946_sm.jpg?itok=fskyH9B5)
China is Upping Its Aid and Development Game. How Should the U.S. Respond?
During his September 2018 U.N. address, President Donald Trump threatened that the United States may decide to only give foreign aid to “those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.” In August, the White House attempted to cut foreign aid...
Conversation
12.19.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/xi-argenitia-sys.jpg?itok=PUV7lPbx)
China’s Growing Footprint in Latin America
Many Latin American countries experienced political change in 2018, with presidential elections in three of the largest countries—Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia—and transitions in Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, and Paraguay. Meanwhile, several...
Features
11.28.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/xinjiang-camel-sys.jpg?itok=DOT4q001)
Beijing’s Long Struggle to Control Xinjiang’s Mineral Wealth
The Silk Road Economic Belt—the overland component of Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—promises to bind China to Central Asia and beyond through a new infrastructural network. Connecting through China’s far western Xinjiang...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.22.18Railroaded: The Chinese High-Speed Train Network No One Else Really Wants
Wall Street Journal
Terrain is easy, negotiations hard, as construction begins on politically fraught route through Southeast Asia.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.18Railroaded: The Chinese High-Speed Train Network No One Else Really Wants
Wall Street Journal
Li Guanghe has built some of the most technically complex railroads in China.
Books
05.03.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/will-doig-sys.jpg?itok=hdvxdtW6)
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High-Speed Empire
Columbia Global Reports: The story of the world’s most audacious infrastructure project.Less than a decade ago, China did not have a single high-speed train in service. Today, it owns a network of 14,000 miles of high-speed rail, far more than the rest of the world combined. Now, China is pushing its tracks into Southeast Asia, reviving a century-old colonial fantasy of an imperial railroad stretching to Singapore, and kicking off a key piece of the One Belt One Road initiative, which has a price tag of U.S.$1 trillion and reaches inside the borders of more than 60 countries.The Pan-Asia Railway portion of One Belt One Road could transform Southeast Asia, bringing shiny Chinese cities, entire economies, and waves of migrants where none existed before. But if it doesn’t succeed, that would be a cautionary tale about whether a new superpower, with levels of global authority unimaginable just a decade ago, can pull entire regions into its orbit simply with tracks, sweat, and lots of money. Journalist Will Doig traveled to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore to chronicle the dramatic transformations taking place—and to find out whether ordinary people have a voice in this moment of economic, political, and cultural collision.{chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
03.01.18Why Chinese State Media Love Elon Musk’s Latest Tweets
CNN
The Tesla CEO tweeted out a link to a video about a Chinese rail station that was built in less than 9 hours.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.27.17China Says Part of Hong Kong Rail Station to Be Subject to Mainland Laws
Reuters
China’s parliament on Wednesday said part of a high-speed railway station being built in Hong Kong would be regarded as mainland territory governed by mainland laws, an unprecedented move that critics say further erodes the city’s autonomy.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.17New Silk Road: Japan to Counteract China in Kazakhstan with New Asia-Europe Rail Deal
Forbes
Japan continues standing in the ring with China, exchanging blow for blow as the Asian rivals both compete and cooperate with each other in the creation of the trans-Eurasian mega-project that has been...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.26.17Anger at Plan to Let Chinese Police Patrol in Hong Kong
Guardian
A Hong Kong government plan to lease part of a new high-speed rail station to China and allow Chinese police to enforce mainland laws has sparked new fears the city is losing its autonomy.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.25.17For China's Global Ambitions, ‘Iran Is at the Center of Everything’
New York Times
When Zuao Ru Lin, a Beijing entrepreneur, first heard about business opportunities in eastern Iran, he was skeptical. But then he bought a map and began to envision the region without any borders, as one enormous market.
The China Africa Project
06.06.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/xi_jiping_and_kenya-sm.jpg?itok=wKLQMaFl)
Chinese Debt in Africa: How Much Is Too Much?
China now owns more than half of Kenya’s external debt, and that figure is likely to grow even higher as President Uhuru Kenyatta turns to Beijing to finance large infrastructure projects across the country. Most recently, China completed the first...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Kenya President Urges Rebalance of China-Africa Trade
Financial Times
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has called on China to rebalance an increasingly skewed trade relationship between Africa and the rising superpower, arguing that Beijing must do more to tackle a widening trade deficit.
Caixin Media
05.05.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/colomboportstall.jpg?itok=_tin35uI)
Belt and Road: A Symphony in Need of a Strong Conductor
In just a few weeks, the Chinese president will host the Belt and Road summit—Xi Jinping’s landmark program to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Reactions to the project have been, understandably...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.08.17Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China’s Help
New York Times
China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.18.17First Freight Train from China to Britain Arrives in London
Reuters
The first China-to-Britain freight train arrived in London on Wednesday after a 7,500-mile journey, marking a milestone in China’s push to build commercial links across Europe and Asia.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.03.17First China-U.K. Freight Train Departs as Xi Seeks to Lift Trade
Bloomberg
China initiated a rail-freight service to Britain as part of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to strengthen trade ties with Europe.
Books
12.20.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/john-pomfret-the-beautiful-country-and-the-middle-kingdom.jpg?itok=lH88_exI)
![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/books/covers/the_beautiful_country-cover.jpg)
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap for Chinese tea, to the U.S. warships facing off against China’s growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations. While we tend to think of America’s ties with China as starting in 1972 with the visit of President Richard Nixon to China, the patterns—rapturous enchantment followed by angry disillusionment—were set in motion hundreds of years earlier.Drawing on personal letters, diaries, memoirs, government documents, and contemporary news reports, John Pomfret reconstructs the surprising, tragic, and marvelous ways Americans and Chinese have engaged with one another through the centuries. A fascinating and thrilling account, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom is also an indispensable book for understanding the most important—and often the most perplexing—relationship between any two countries in the world. —Henry Holt{chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.16Is China Building a Road to Ruin?
Wall Street Journal
China beats the U.S. on infrastructure but at a heavy cost
Environment
09.15.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-450397395.jpg?itok=RoQmJq63)
A Chinese Train Could Link South America’s Atlantic and Pacific Coasts by Rail for the First Time
from chinadialogue
Official bodies from Brazil and Peru have expressed concern about the social and environmental impacts of the proposed interoceanic railway, which will connect the coast of Peru and Brazil, cutting through 621 miles of pristine rainforest.In a...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.12.16China Lays New Brick in Silk Road With First Afghan Rail Freight
Bloomberg
China has for years had grand investment plans for Afghanistan’s resource riches.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.16What the Newly Branded China-Europe ‘Silk Road’ Trains Really Mean
Forbes
Trans-continental railway with fresh, uniform logos are set to launch on an auspicious date....
Caixin Media
01.19.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/trainfatalities_0.jpg?itok=jUcClXn2)
Why China Doesn’t Publish Fatal Train Crash Data
Disputes between the two agencies running the trains in China over how to classify and publish details on fatal railroad incidents has kept reports on some fatal accidents last year from surfacing, people close to the matter say. Several employees...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.24.15China Wants to Build a High-Speed Rail Link to a Newly Open Iran
Quartz
China Railway has proposed a high-speed rail link that will carry both passengers and cargo between China and Iran.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.15China to Build $5 Billion High-Speed Rail Line in Indonesia
Bloomberg
China Railway International Co. Ltd and a consortium of Indonesian state companies will build the rail line from Jakarta to Bandung.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.30.15Chinese Team Expresses Interest in California High-Speed Rail Program
Xinhua
The Chinese High Speed Rail Delivery Team is among 35 U.S. and foreign entities that expressed their interest in participating in the California High-Speed Rail(CHSR) program.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.15China: Protests For High-Speed Rail Line To ‘Abandoned' City’ Triggers Violent Clashes
International Business Times
China: Protests For High-Speed Rail Line To 'Abandoned' City Triggers Violent Clashes http://www.ibtimes.com/china-protests-high-speed-rail-line-abandoned-city-triggers-violent-clashes-1926516
ChinaFile Recommends
05.12.15Fatal Police Shooting Under Investigation: Ministry
Xinhua
There are clear rules on the carrying and use of fire arms by police officers, and it will take time to confirm whether police had opened fire legally in the case.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.11.15China Tilts Towards Liberal Latin American Economies
Financial Times
China is promoting a Chinese-built, cross-Andes rail link that would allow Brazilian ore and soya to be shipped from Pacific ports in Peru to Asia.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.20.15China’s Investing $46 B to Carve Route Through one of World’s Most Dangerous Regions
Quartz
Xi visiing Pakistan to sign energy and infrastructure deals for a corridor stretching to Xinjiang.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.25.1539 Hours Inside The Biggest Human Migration On Earth
Huffington Post
China's Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's rolled into one, the holiday unfolds on an entirely different scale.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.24.15China Is Creating a New Economic World Order Right Under the West’s Nose
Nation
From new “silk roads” to 40,000 miles of high-speed rail, China is poised to dominate the 21st century global economy.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.14China Flexes Its High-speed Rail Muscles by Rolling out 32 New Routes in One Day
Quartz
China has lofty expectations of becoming a global leader in high-speed rail technology, with projects in over a dozen countries, as well as plans to more than double its own domestic network of high-speed rail, which is already the world’s largest.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.04.14Why China Won Mexico’s High-Speed Rail Project
Diplomat
Underlying Mexico’s decision to choose China, and what may have made it the only country able to meet to proposal deadline, was its decision to finance 85 percent of the project through the Export-Import Bank of China.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.06.14Great Job on the Railroad. Now Go Back to China.
New York Times
The narrative at the New-York Historical Society’s vigorous and imaginative new exhibition is not just of China’s impact on United States history or of the experiences and suffering of Chinese immigrants. It is how Chinese-American identity came to...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.14All Aboard: China’s Railway Dream
BBC
At Asia’s biggest rail cargo base in Chengdu in south-west China, the cranes are hard at work, swinging containers from trucks onto a freight train. The containers are filled with computers, clothes, even cars.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.12.14China to Build Railway Linking East Africa
Agence France-Presse
Leaders agree $3.8bn project to link Kenya's port of Mombasa to neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.06.14Six People Injured in Attack at South China Rail Station
Wall Street Journal
A single man slashed people outside a Guangzhou railway station. An armed police officer fired at and wounded the attacker, helping authorities capture the perpetrator.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.08.14What Could Happen in China in 2014?
McKinsey & Company
Gordon Orr predicts corporate focus on driving productivity, increased interest in CIOs, bankrupt shopping malls, and European investment in Chinese soccer clubs.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Kenya’s Kenyatta and China’s Xi Sign $5 Billion Deals
BBC
Kenya has signed deals worth $5 billion with China to build a railway line, an energy project and to improve wildlife protection, officials say. They were signed during Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's first visit to China since his...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.08.13Ex-Rail Minister in China Gets a Suspended Death Sentence
New York Times
A Beijing Beijing sentenced former Chinese minister of railways Li Zhijun to a suspended death sentence after finding him guilty of taking bribes and abusing his powers, state-run media reported.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.18.13Governor Brown Wants China Aboard California’s High-Speed Rail Project
Los Angeles Times
Chinese interest in California’s project is a welcome boost for Brown. Although state voters approved $10 billion in bonds for a high-speed railway in 2008, they have soured on it as cost estimates have ballooned. This is just one of many ways Brown...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.21.13Once So Mighty, Now Gone: China’s Ministry of Railways
International Herald Tribune
The massive rail system, which employs more than 2 million people, is being turned into a state-owned corporation. Among ordinary workers, there’s considerable anxiety, and an insistent concern about whether their lives will actually...
Caixin Media
03.09.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/158716722.jpg?itok=r6V_jwl3)
Is Railway Reform Finally On Track?
Finally, it seems the railways ministry may soon be restructured as part of a wider exercise by the government to streamline its ministries. Putting railway reform on the agenda of this year’s meetings of the National People’s Congress and the...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.08.13China Signals Reform Of Rail System
Wall Street Journal
China signaled it is on the verge of shaking up its massive railway system, long plagued by corruption allegations and heavy debt. Reform of China’s Railways Ministry will start once a plan to merge it with China’s Transport...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.27.12“Digital Disaster” Frustrates Would-Be Train Ticket Buyers
It’s a digital disaster. With a Chinese travel crunch looming, China’s online ticketing system is quickly turning into a boondoggle of historic proportions.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.14.12How Dangerous Liaisons Led to Massive Corruption
A graft investigation into former railways minister Liu Zhijun that started in February 2011 has concluded with the ministry issuing a document on August 3 that lists six disciplinary violations Liu committed. The internal ministry notice sheds...
Caixin Media
07.11.12![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/81926185.jpg?itok=w4bRYlqw)
Railroaded into a Fast-Train Technology Trap
The professional dreams of a team of locomotive designers and rail systems engineers sped along steel tracks through the countryside of northeastern China.The year was 2003, and high-speed track testing was under way between the cities of Shenyang...
Caixin Media
05.28.12![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/141733821.jpg?itok=_xxwBwKi)
Rail Builders Shift Interest to Overseas Mines
After a three-year wait, China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. (CRCC) recently won permission to launch a major copper mining project in Ecuador.The production agreement signed April 25 by Ecuador’s government and Corriente Resources, a Canadian...
Sinica Podcast
09.30.11![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/127239206.jpg?itok=3Fwpjbt2)
The Shanghai Train Accident
from Sinica Podcast
At least 284 people were injured on Tuesday when a train in the Shanghai metro smashed into another which had stalled on the tracks. The accident, which threw Shanghai into disarray, came only two months after another near-disastrous incident on the...
Sinica Podcast
07.29.11![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/119652351.jpg?itok=gXztcFq8)
Train Wrecks
from Sinica Podcast
After a long and hot July marked by the near-absence of most of our guests, Sinica host Kaiser Kuo is pleased to be back this week leading a discussion of the recent accident on the high-speed Hangzhou-Wenzhou rail line, an accident that has...
Sinica Podcast
01.07.11![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/107152985.jpg?itok=gTPgJN6o)
China 2010—Year in Review
from Sinica Podcast
This week we take a look back at China in 2010, revisiting some of the biggest stories we covered and discussing a few we missed. With Kaiser Kuo hosting the discussion as usual, our guests in the studio include Sinica stalwarts and regulars Jeremy...
The NYRB China Archive
01.17.08![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/84000446.jpg?itok=-FiGV5gn)
The Quiet Heroes of Tibet
from New York Review of Books
Earlier this year, shortly before boarding the new Chinese train from Beijing to Lhasa, I met Woeser, a Tibetan poet and essayist (she uses only one name). Unusual among Tibetans in China, who tend to avoid talking to foreigners, she spoke frankly...