May 15, 2018
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the One Belt One Road Initiative to create trade and infrastructure links between Asia and Europe. Journalist Doig (Salon; The Daily Beast) investigates how this initiative has resurrected a century-old dream of creating a rail line to connect Singapore with Kunming in southwest China. The author traveled to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore and experienced firsthand the development that is already occurring along the proposed high-speed rail corridor. The variety of political systems and cultures involved presents challenges for the project's construction. China offers fast construction at generous rates and also provides loans to help finance the projects. The influx of Chinese workers to the region, along with large loans that are difficult to pay off, arouses local suspicion of China's motives. Those looking for a more detailed analysis of China's relations with Southeast Asia should consider Impact of China's Rise on the Mekong Region, edited by Yos Santasombat. VERDICT An excellent and concise introduction to China's rail diplomacy. Highly recommended for readers interested in Asian current affairs.--Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2018
Illuminating study of China's ambitious efforts to extend its influence in Southeast Asia by means of a high-speed rail system.In 1991, the city of Shanghai decided to build a metro system. The World Bank refused to support the project, saying that since most Shanghainese traveled through the city by bicycle, the subway was unlikely to find a sufficient market. Now, three decades later, the Shanghai metro is the world's largest, extending more than 350 miles and carrying 3 billion passengers per year. The lesson is clear: China does not like to be curtailed or told that something is not possible, and given that its once nonexistent highway system now surpasses the U.S. interstate system, it is no surprise that the country has become a master of what might be called instant infrastructure. "A major thrust of the country's economic strategy involves building infrastructure beyond its own borders," writes journalist Doig, including an overarching effort to link nearly half the world's landmass by rail, highways, and air and seaports. The effort, of course, undermines American sway in Asia, particularly as the U.S. takes an isolationist turn. One leg of this system, the Pan-Asia Railway, "looks tantalizingly within reach"; it would connect China with Singapore by way of Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. The first country poses perhaps the greatest problems, since it is closely allied with Vietnam, China's regional rival, and lacks much infrastructure at all; writes Doig, "Laos's most valuable contribution to the Pan-Asia Railway might simply be a path southward." Thailand poses comparatively fewer problems and has lately sent more exports to China than the U.S. Though Malaysia is mired in corruption, few obstacles seem to stand in the way--and even if there were, writes Doig, China is noted for its fluidity in overcoming them.Whether China succeeds is, of course, for the future to tell. That it has emerged so rapidly as the region's superpower, though, makes this brief study particularly timely.
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