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Monday, 15 March 2010
Cross-strait fast-rail link on agenda
Not content with criss-crossing the mainland and much of Asia with high-speed rail lines, Beijing plans an even more eye-popping route - under the sea to Taiwan.
Not content with criss-crossing the mainland and much of Asia with high-speed rail lines, Beijing plans an even more eye-popping route - under the sea to Taiwan.
But the plan, confirmed by a senior railways official, faces formidable challenges.
They are both technical - the shortest tunnel under the Taiwan Strait would be 126 kilometres long, more than twice the length of the world’s longest undersea rail tunnel - and political: asked about the idea, a Taiwanese government official said it was not even worth talking about.
That’s not surprising. Wang Mengshu, a top mainland rail expert and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, makes no bones about the impact such a line would have. Once the tunnel is built, the historical issue of Taiwan’s independence will be gone forever,” he said. Wang predicts the island’s green camp of pro-independence parties “will definitely try to block it”.
Still, he said mainland and Taiwanese researchers would meet on the mainland in the coming months to discuss the technical issues of the tunnel. And he is confident the mainland has the technical know-how to build the railway if political hurdles can be overcome.
The extensive and rapid construction of the mainland’s high-speed rail network had equipped the country’s engineers with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to dig the undersea tunnel, he said. Wang was a key figure in the drafting of the mainland’s railway development plan.
“The tunnel will be more than 100 kilometres long. Some of the high-speed rail tunnels under construction in the mountainous areas of central and western China have exceeded 40 kilometres. Technically, they are the same,” he said. “Earthquakes won’t be a problem, either. They can only destroy surface structures. They have no effect on a tunnel.”
The plan was laid out in an agreement signed two years ago between the Ministry of Railways and coastal Fujian province, which faces Taiwan, to build a high-speed network linking Fujian with other parts of the mainland. But few took notice of the idea of a cross-strait high-speed rail line until the recent boom in mainland high-speed railway construction began.
Now the idea appears to be gaining some traction. Yu Zhuomin, director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau, told Wuhan’s Changjiang Daily that building a high-speed railway connecting Kunming and Taiwan was “on the government agenda”. The agreement between the ministry and Fujian includes such a link.
Yu said Wuhan, as the hub of the mainland’s fast-growing high-speed rail network, would benefit from a cross-strait service.
Zheng Jian, chief planner of the Ministry of Railways, confirmed yesterday that Beijing was financing preliminary research on the feasibility of the project. Still, he said the government attached great importance to the rail links on the western side of the Taiwan Strait and planned high-speed services and other mass transit networks linking Fujian with other parts of the mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanchang .
“[The undersea tunnel linking Fujian to Taiwan] is included in China’s medium and long-term plans for railway development,” he said.
Wang, of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the goal of the coming meeting between officials, researchers and senior engineers from the government, construction companies and research institutes on the mainland, and railway industry representatives in Taiwan, was to settle on an optimal route between Fujian and Taiwan.
“There are three routes on the table - the northern, central and southern routes. The southern route links Xiamen and Kaohsiung,” Wang said. “But, at the moment, the northern route has received more support from researchers. If the northern route is selected, the ministry will order construction clearance at the site of the tunnel entrance in northern Fujian.”
He estimated the tunnel would cost 200 billion yuan (HK$227.32 billion) and take 10 years to build.
“This is only a unilateral view, not worth responding [to],” said Jonathan Liu Teh-hsun, vice-chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council. “We have no plan like this at all.”
Wang Kung-yi, a professor of international affairs and strategic studies at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said plans to link the mainland and Taiwan by rail, road or undersea tunnel were politically sensitive and construction was highly unlikely before the two sides resolved their political disputes.
“They involve territory, sovereignty and other thorny political issues that the two sides must address and resolve before such construction plans can be feasible.”
Still, newspaper the Economic Observer said local governments were, even at this stage, clamouring for a place on a Kunming-Taiwan link, with Hunan cities such as Chenzhou vying with neighbours to be selected as a stop.
2 comments:
Cross-strait fast-rail link on agenda
Stephen Chen
14 March 2010
Not content with criss-crossing the mainland and much of Asia with high-speed rail lines, Beijing plans an even more eye-popping route - under the sea to Taiwan.
But the plan, confirmed by a senior railways official, faces formidable challenges.
They are both technical - the shortest tunnel under the Taiwan Strait would be 126 kilometres long, more than twice the length of the world’s longest undersea rail tunnel - and political: asked about the idea, a Taiwanese government official said it was not even worth talking about.
That’s not surprising. Wang Mengshu, a top mainland rail expert and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, makes no bones about the impact such a line would have. Once the tunnel is built, the historical issue of Taiwan’s independence will be gone forever,” he said. Wang predicts the island’s green camp of pro-independence parties “will definitely try to block it”.
Still, he said mainland and Taiwanese researchers would meet on the mainland in the coming months to discuss the technical issues of the tunnel. And he is confident the mainland has the technical know-how to build the railway if political hurdles can be overcome.
The extensive and rapid construction of the mainland’s high-speed rail network had equipped the country’s engineers with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to dig the undersea tunnel, he said. Wang was a key figure in the drafting of the mainland’s railway development plan.
“The tunnel will be more than 100 kilometres long. Some of the high-speed rail tunnels under construction in the mountainous areas of central and western China have exceeded 40 kilometres. Technically, they are the same,” he said. “Earthquakes won’t be a problem, either. They can only destroy surface structures. They have no effect on a tunnel.”
The plan was laid out in an agreement signed two years ago between the Ministry of Railways and coastal Fujian province, which faces Taiwan, to build a high-speed network linking Fujian with other parts of the mainland. But few took notice of the idea of a cross-strait high-speed rail line until the recent boom in mainland high-speed railway construction began.
Now the idea appears to be gaining some traction. Yu Zhuomin, director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau, told Wuhan’s Changjiang Daily that building a high-speed railway connecting Kunming and Taiwan was “on the government agenda”. The agreement between the ministry and Fujian includes such a link.
Yu said Wuhan, as the hub of the mainland’s fast-growing high-speed rail network, would benefit from a cross-strait service.
Zheng Jian, chief planner of the Ministry of Railways, confirmed yesterday that Beijing was financing preliminary research on the feasibility of the project. Still, he said the government attached great importance to the rail links on the western side of the Taiwan Strait and planned high-speed services and other mass transit networks linking Fujian with other parts of the mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanchang .
“[The undersea tunnel linking Fujian to Taiwan] is included in China’s medium and long-term plans for railway development,” he said.
Wang, of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the goal of the coming meeting between officials, researchers and senior engineers from the government, construction companies and research institutes on the mainland, and railway industry representatives in Taiwan, was to settle on an optimal route between Fujian and Taiwan.
“There are three routes on the table - the northern, central and southern routes. The southern route links Xiamen and Kaohsiung,” Wang said. “But, at the moment, the northern route has received more support from researchers. If the northern route is selected, the ministry will order construction clearance at the site of the tunnel entrance in northern Fujian.”
He estimated the tunnel would cost 200 billion yuan (HK$227.32 billion) and take 10 years to build.
Taiwan described the plan as wishful thinking.
“This is only a unilateral view, not worth responding [to],” said Jonathan Liu Teh-hsun, vice-chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council. “We have no plan like this at all.”
Wang Kung-yi, a professor of international affairs and strategic studies at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said plans to link the mainland and Taiwan by rail, road or undersea tunnel were politically sensitive and construction was highly unlikely before the two sides resolved their political disputes.
“They involve territory, sovereignty and other thorny political issues that the two sides must address and resolve before such construction plans can be feasible.”
Still, newspaper the Economic Observer said local governments were, even at this stage, clamouring for a place on a Kunming-Taiwan link, with Hunan cities such as Chenzhou vying with neighbours to be selected as a stop.
Additional reporting by Lawrence Chung in Taipei
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