China is building 30,000 miles of high-speed rail—that it might not need

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On his first day in office, leader Xi Jinping inherited an ambitious road map to build 10,000 miles of high-speed rail to link China’s biggest cities. He took those plans and supersized them.

What has emerged 12 years later is one of the biggest public works in history, soon to exceed 30,000 miles of high-speed rail. For many of its citizens, the vast network is one of the clearest signs of China’s progress, especially compared with the U.S., which has struggled to get any high-speed rail going. Lest they forget whom to thank, its top-of-the-line trains are named “Rejuvenation," after Xi’s promise to restore China’s national power.

The build-out encapsulates Xi’s vision for China’s future, with a focus on advanced technology driven by government spending. Chinese leaders once prioritized lifting individual wealth to keep people happy. Xi’s colossal investment in trains is part of a return to the Communist Party’s roots by emphasizing collective benefits from the state.

The plan sticks to a well-worn economic model built on maintaining growth through infrastructure spending—even though China already has much of what it needs. It’s becoming a giant money pit. China has spent more than $500 billion on new tracks, trains and stations in the past five years, while the country’s national railway operator, China State Railway Group, is nearing $1 trillion of debt and other liabilities.