The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
As the trains full of goods pass by on the China-Laos Railway, Thailand may realize what it is missing. Under the construction of China's Belt and Road Initiative, many countries have reached trade cooperation relations with China, including these Southeast Asian countries.
The China-Laos railway began to be officially opened to traffic as early as 2021, but the China-Thailand railway has not progressed, and the 11-kilometer railway from Thailand to the Laos border will be opened in June, without China's help, the two countries will spend 15 years.
The completion of the China-Laos railway has brought about the economic take-off of Laos, and it is too slow to rely on itself, so I want to hug China's thigh.
China did take Thailand to play, but a series of things happened in the middle, making the completion of the China-Thailand railway a distant date, what happened?
01
China-Laos Railway
With a population of only 7 million, Laos has long been regarded as an underdeveloped "landlocked country" due to its small land area. However, with the completion and opening of the China-Laos Railway, Laos has shaken off its isolation from the world and opened the door to the Asia-Pacific market.
The nearly 1,000-kilometre-long railway connects Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to Kunming, Yunnan, China. For Laos, the China-Laos Railway is undoubtedly a golden key to development.
Some experts predict that once the China-Laos railway is officially put into operation, Laos' GDP may directly double, and Thai media assert that the China-Laos railway will help Laos become a land transportation hub in Southeast Asia, and Vientiane is expected to rise as an important international city.
Chinese technical experts unreservedly passed on advanced railway construction concepts to Lao workers, and the sight of the two peoples fighting side by side and working together is unforgettable.
After the opening of the China-Laos Railway, one or two freight trains began to shuttle back and forth, and China's industrial products arrived in Laos in a steady stream, and Laos' specialties such as coffee and bananas were also sold to various parts of the motherland by this train, so that the trade volume between the two countries rose rapidly, and the living standards of the Lao people continued to improve.
The China-Laos Railway is also of great significance to China, as the steel dragon connecting ethnic minority areas such as Yunnan and Guangxi to the world's economic arteries, bringing new development opportunities and an influx of international tourists, creating jobs and boosting the economy.
However, at the beginning of the construction of this railway, some Western countries and institutions asserted that it was a "loss-making deal" and demonized it as a "debt trap". But the fact is that within nine months of its opening, the China-Laos railway has transported US$1.45 billion worth of goods and 5 million passengers, not to mention today, two and a half years later.
The China-Laos Railway is not only strategically important, it is also strategically important, and Laos is very strategic in its geographical location between China and Southeast Asia, opening up China's access to the Indian Ocean and reducing its dependence on the Strait of Malacca.
More importantly, the China-Laos railway will be a key link connecting the entire Southeast Asian region. Thailand, Malaysia and other countries are actively seeking to connect with it, once the formation of a regional railway network, will greatly shorten the freight distance and time between ASEAN countries and China, and help the "Belt and Road" to take root here.
01
Sino-Thai Railway
Railways are one of the most important transportation infrastructures in modern society, and the construction of a railway is not only related to the development of a country, but also to the economic integration process of the entire region.
Under the impetus of the "Belt and Road", the China-Laos Railway was successfully completed, which brought tangible benefits to Laos, but the China-Thailand Railway, which also belongs to the "Belt and Road" project, has experienced a rather tortuous construction process.
Initially, China and Thailand planned to build a "human" herringbone railway across Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, and the whole project was carried out in three phases, the first phase from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, the second phase of Nakhon Ratchasima directly to Vientiane, Laos, and the third phase from Bangkok to Buriram near Cambodia.
Everything seemed to be going well, but when the first phase of the project was completed, the second phase of the project encountered resistance, and Thailand suddenly reversed itself, saying that the second phase of the project would be completed by the Thai side itself, and the scale of construction was reduced, so that the railway extending from Laos was cut off and could not connect with the line in Thailand.
On the one hand, Thailand hopes to improve its infrastructure with the help of China's advanced railway technology, but on the other hand, they want to continue to use Japanese standards and systems on the existing old railway system.
China's attitude is resolutely unacceptable, China's technology and standards are a complete system, and it is impossible to forcibly mix two fundamentally different standards.
In the ensuing negotiations, the two sides entered into a bargain of national interests, and in addition to the issue of technical standards, the Thai side also expressed dissatisfaction with the 2.5% preferential loan rate offered by the Chinese side, and hoped that it would be further reduced to 2%.
In the face of Thailand's unreasonable demands, China resolutely refused, and according to expert analysis, the interest rate of 2.5% is already very preferential compared with the loan standards of other countries.
In this way, a project that should have continued to progress has come to a long-term standstill, and in the blink of an eye in mid-2023, the original first phase of the project has not yet been completed, and people can't help but question whether the project, which cost tens of billions, will "give up halfway".
Just when people were pessimistic about the prospects of the China-Thailand railway, an exciting news came that the China-Laos railway had achieved remarkable results.
According to the data, by the end of 2023, the freight volume of the China-Laos Railway will reach 29.1 million tons, and the number of passengers transported will be as high as 24.2 million. As a key corridor connecting Yunnan and Laos, the economic benefits brought by the China-Laos Railway can be seen.
After seeing such impressive results of the China-Laos Railway, Thailand finally refreshed its perception and realized that it urgently needed to build such an efficient transport infrastructure.
So in April 2024, the Thai government allocated 66.8 billion Thai dollars to restart the construction of the second phase of the project, and finally agreed to use Chinese railway technical standards.
The construction of the Sino-Thai railway is not completed overnight, the entire second phase of the project needs to cross a large area of swampy area, the construction is more difficult, and at the same time, there are a large number of houses along the line to relocate, this process may also need to take a lot of twists and turns.
This long steel dragon running through China and Thailand, after more than ten years of dispute negotiations, has finally restarted construction.
03
Japan's careful thinking
Japan has long maintained a deep influence in Southeast Asia, and the simple reason is that the country's domestic economy has been sluggish for a long time, and it has not been able to find a way out of the large production capacity and capital, so it has set its sights on the Southeast Asian market that is close at hand.
In order to attract Southeast Asian countries to cooperate with them, Japan has frequently resorted to "killer weapons": low-interest loans, multilateral aid, and other lure methods have emerged one after another, and for some Southeast Asian countries that are short of funds, this is undoubtedly an attractive piece of "fat" and difficult to resist.
But Japan's move has a clear agenda, and to a large extent, it is trying to hinder China's Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia.
Proof of this is that when Japan cooperates with these countries in infrastructure, it often deliberately makes things difficult and creates obstacles to try to disrupt China's deployment.
The most typical example is the Sino-Thai high-speed rail project, which initially reached a consensus on this key project, which cost tens of billions of yuan. However, in the process of progressing, Thailand suddenly "changed its mind" and insisted on adopting the Japanese and domestic systems.
This was undoubtedly interfered with and affected by Japan, and the Sino-Thai high-speed rail project fell into a long-term stalemate, which once made people worry that it would "give up halfway".
But fortunately, now Thailand has figured it out, but at a huge cost, both time and money, have slipped out of their hands, but it's not too late to turn back.
Resources:
[1] Government website: On December 2, 2023, the China-Laos Railway has been in operation for two years, injecting new vitality into regional economic and social development
[2] CCTV: On June 18, 2024, the reporter of the main station looked at the world|The China-Laos-Thailand cross-border railway has accelerated, and regional interconnection has entered a new stage