China’s government-linked Global Times, in its GT Voice column, on Dec. 23, titled “BRI Development Vital in Improving Global Connectivity Landscape,” makes evident that the Belt and Road Initiative’s rail-building program to create a new paradigm is going forward at increased speed, and that claims that it has come to a stop are completely mistaken.
The article opens: “With steady advancement in construction and planning for the railway network spanning Southeast Asia and Eurasia, infrastructure efforts aimed at reshaping global connectivity are set to inject new vitality into the development, stability and peace of both the region and the world at large.”
Global Times notes that on Sunday, Dec. 22, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh “said that Vietnam will start building a new railway that will run from its largest northern port of Haiphong City through [the] capital Hanoi to Lao Cai province that borders China by the end of next year.” Indeed, unmentioned by the article, the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is building the 417 km railway. Global Times enthusiastically notes: “The news comes just days after Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov announced on Friday [Dec. 20] that the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is set to officially commence on Dec. 27, the Uzbek news website kun.uz reported.” The China Railway Construction Corporation is building that 523 km line, already underway, which will allow goods and people to flow in and out of Central Asia and build permanent productivity into the region.
