China’s Grand Vision for a Vast Rail Network Transforms a Neighboring Country
A few years ago, this small town on the border with China was a few dusty lanes surrounded by tropical forests. Now, a nearly $6 billion Chinese-built railroad cuts through it—and a city is rising. Dozens of half-constructed office towers and warehouses rise into the skyline.
A Chinese developer, Yunnan Haicheng Industrial Group, is pitching the six-square-mile special economic zone where they stand as the gateway between China and Southeast Asia, a place where labor is cheap and exporting is easy, thanks to the new train. Jackhammers clamor until nightfall, when they give way to the sounds of Chinese pop music blaring from open-air restaurants where transiting businessmen unwind over beer and spicy peanuts. “There’s a Chinese saying that when the whistle blows, it’s worth 10,000 taels of gold," said He Ming Jia, a senior executive at Yunnan Haicheng.
“Chinese investment follows the train." Globally, China’s now decade-old Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, has been in retreat, with a number of projects stalled or mired in controversy—at times over allegations of incurring unsustainable debts for developing countries. But in this part of Southeast Asia, it is alive and kicking. Beijing is casting the 262-mile rail line, which launched in late 2021, as a showcase of how its grand vision for regionwide rail connectivity can be transformative for the local economy.
The plan imagines a China-backed network stretching through Southeast Asia’s agricultural and industrial heartlands—drawing its neighbors into a tighter embrace and binding their economies to its own for decades to come. “To China, this is a key mega project. Completion of this railway will demonstrate that BRI remains on track," said Yu Hong, a senior research
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