19/12/2023 – By Frédéric de Kemmeter – Railway signalling and freelance copywriter – Suscribe my blog
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Last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed delegations from almost 90 countries to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This was an opportunity to take a look at the rail component of this highly political initiative.
The world is changing, and so are perceptions. As recall The Economist, after centuries of uneasy relations, imperial demands for tribute and occasional wars, much of Asia must now reckon with a giant Chinese neighbour that is much more than a trade partner. With wealth and success has come new confidence in a Chinese model and ambitions to share it. More than 150 countries, accounting for almost 75% of the world’s population and more than half of its gdp, seem to look more to China than to the West.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), is a global infrastructure development strategy initiated by the Chinese government in 2013. The initiative is aimed at enhancing trade and investment connectivity between countries, primarily in Asia, Europe, and Africa. The name « Belt and Road » refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, reflecting the historical trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean and other parts of the world.
One of the realities is that BRI is not only about physical infrastructure but also involves policy coordination, financial integration, and people-to-people exchanges. The Chinese government promotes the initiative as a means to promote economic development, enhance regional cooperation, and foster cultural exchange. The initiative is also seen as a way for China to increase its influence on the global stage. However, a number of recipient countries have now struggled with debt repayments.
There is no shortage of Chinese rail projects in foreign countries. The West’s procrastination is a blessing for China, which enables Africa to obtain a modernity that the West is reluctant to offer.
Maria Adele Carrai, assistant professor in global China studies at New York University Shanghai, explains that many commentators have expressed concern that China’s development financing, with its global scope, is setting a new development paradigm set to replace a Western model which promoting good governance, best practices, high standards, and a comprehensive approach to development, involving the rule of law, debt sustainability, and social and environmental responsibilities.
Railways
These geopolitical factors include the rail projects that China is endeavouring to extend to several continents. Some projects involve Europe and even the United States, but many rail projects concern Africa.
According to Washington Post, Chinese enterprises have dominated the financing and development of critical infrastructure in Africa since 2017. The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa estimates that in 2018 China contributed $25.7 billion of the overall $100.8 billion committed toward African infrastructure development projects. A 2017 McKinsey report estimated that Chinese construction enterprises won almost half of all engineering, procurement and construction contracts continentwide — including those funded by non-Chinese sources like the World Bank. The McKinsey report surveyed 1,000 Chinese firms and factories in eight African countries, reporting that African employees made up 89 percent of the firms’ combined workforce.
Part of these huge sums was used to finance for example the 480 kilometres of UIC gauge track between Nairobi and Mombasa. This investment, worth more than $4.7 billion, was commissioned in 2017. But things were financially more hard than expected. In 2021, the Chinese government agreed to let Kenya defer $245 million in repayments on loans from state-owned Export-Import Bank of China, also known as the China Exim Bank.
Another longer project was the line linking Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Dijbouti on the Red Sea. This 780-kilometre project was inaugurated in 2018 after an investment of around $4 billion. Although Ethiopia is a poor African country with many problems such as insufficient funds, material shortages, and backward technology, China resolutely accepted the project and proposed it to Ethiopia on its own initiative. With some innovative ideas. The construction benefited of the use of volcanic slag is boldly mixed with clay for the railway platform.
In 2017 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed an agreement with a Chinese firm to develop multiple Standard Gauge Railway lines (SGR) to serve the provinces of Tshopo, Bas-Uélé, Haut-Uélé, Ituri and Mongala. The feasibility study for these projects began in 2019, according IRJ.
It has a lot of other projects in Tanzania, Uganda and other countries, confirming the long-term geopolitical presence of the Chinese on this continent, which is increasingly being abandoned by Europe.
The two lines in East Africa connect seaports, which have themselves been modernized by the Chinese. The aim is clearly the transport of precious minerals rather than the well-being of Africa. The West reacted belatedly to this Chinese takeover. Last September, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would support the development of the Lobito Corridor in partnership with the EU. The corridor aims to strengthen a distribution network that connects Angola’s port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, inland countries that are rich in mineral resources.
The route to the West
One of the key components of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the development of a railway network connecting China to Europe. This initiative is often referred to as the « New Silk Road Railway. » The primary goal is to enhance trade and connectivity between China and European countries by establishing efficient and direct rail links.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the rail link through Russia has been cut off by Europe. Direct trains therefore had to find another route further south, through countries that are more dependent on China than Russia itself. The new routes now take in the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, the Black Sea and then Bulgaria or Romania. As long as there is lasting peace in the Black Sea, this route is perfectly feasible, albeit more perilous.
After buying part of the port of Piraeus in Athens, the Chinese have agreed to a request from the Serbs to rebuild a line between Belgrade towards Hungary . The completion of upgrades on the 183.1km Serbian section of the line to Subotica on the Hungarian border, which are due to be completed by the end of 2024. In addition, Serbs and Chinese have signed in last October a €54m contract with CRRC subsidiary CRRC Changchun for five 200km/h EMUs, which will be delivered at the start of 2025.
Nor should we forget that the national company CRRC has sold – albeit on a more anecdotal basis – long-distance trainsets to two private companies, WESTbahn and Leo-Express.
The trade war raging between China and the USA has not stopped CRRC from building a production plant on American soil, in Springfield, Massachusetts, built on the site of what was once a massive Westinghouse Electric Corp. factory. The context of this plant is special. According the website Masslive, a 2019 federal law blocks CRRC from accessing federal money in most cases. It can only solicit federally-funded business from transit agencies with which it is already doing business, as the Los Angeles subway and Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
CRRC also has a U.S. facility in Naperville, Illinois, which supplies electrical equipment for the 64 cars destined to renew the Los Angeles subway system. Bodyshells for the new fleet were fabricated by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles in China and the contract includes options for an additional 218 cars, which could take the total value of the deal to $US 647m if all options are exercised.
In Africa, America and Europe, China wants to shape the world in its own image, step by step, showing that there are other equally valid values. It is defining its new world by building railroads and creating jobs in Western factories. There’s every reason to believe that there’s more to come… 🟧
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19/12/2023 – By Frédéric de Kemmeter – Railway signalling and freelance copywriter – Suscribe my blog
🟧 Back to homepage 🟧 See our brief news 🟧 UK 🟧 China 🟧 Japan 🟧 USA 🟧 the rest of the world
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