International Law

Taipei Rail Link

By Stan

Yes, I know that this is fundamentally a political story. However, I can’t stop that fanboy part of my brain that just gets really excited about new technology, including nifty new rail lines. Let’s face it, it would be pretty cool to be able to take a train to Taiwan.

Full article on the possible Xiamen to Taiwan train is below. Seems to me that there has been a lot of "let’s make peace with Taiwan" news out there recently. This just happens to be taking place at the same time that the Taiwanese economy is in freefall. Even a crappy chess player like me can see that this is a great time for Beijing to use the poor economy to its advantage for resolving some medium-term cross-straits issues.

More info for you train enthusiasts:

China is looking to build a train line linking the mainland with Taiwan to boost trade ties between the two sides, the Chinese railways minister said in comments published Thursday.

Liu Zhijun said the government was "actively planning" the rail link, which would allow train travel all the way between Beijing and Taipei, according the Xinhua news agency.

"The railway network is expected to lay a foundation of transport infrastructure for the cross-Straits economic zone," Xinhua reported.

The rail line may stretch across the body of water between Xiamen, a city in the south-eastern Chinese province of Fujian, and Taiwan, according to Xinhua.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).