On December 3, 2021, , China invested , , and , China-Laos Railway, was opened and operated. , Laos , the people were extremely happy, and Vietnam heard about this and regretted it.
It is reported that the China-Laos Railway is an unobstructed railway between China and Laos, and it is also the first modern railway in Laos. The entire journey is 1,000 kilometers. my country spent more than 50 billion yuan on investment alone. In terms of time, it took my country 11 years, which shows how difficult it is to build.
And among the several countries of ASEAN , Laos should be the most easily overlooked country. The east is blocked by Changshan, the west is blocked by Mekong , and the terrain is surrounded by China, Vietnam, Cambodia , Thailand, Myanmar and other countries. In addition, the lack of seaports and roads connecting the surrounding areas have made Laos on the edge for a long time, and the weight of speaking internationally is not that heavy.
With the rapid rise of China in the 1990s, it also began to promote changes in the pattern of neighboring countries. The relationship between Laos and China has gradually become closer. With China's continuous assistance, Laos' foreign influence has also increased. Under the influence of China's Pan-Asia Railway, Laos understood the principle that if you want to be rich, it was the reason why China and Laos were friendly neighbors, so Laos sought help from China to build the railway. After
, my country's Belt and Road Strategy implemented by China helped Laos solve this big problem. China began the construction of the 1,022-kilometer-long China-Laos Railway in 2010. This transportation network that runs through Indochina Peninsula will become a link between China and ASEAN countries, bringing the distance between China and ASEAN closer. On December 3, 2021, the China-Laos Railway was successfully completed and opened to traffic, which increased the operating speed of the Lao Railway by nearly three times, from the original 60 kilometers per hour to 160 kilometers per hour, which was amazing.
In this way, Laos can export a large number of various resources, such as wood, food raw materials, minerals, etc., which greatly improves domestic economic capacity and significantly improves people's lives.
When India learned about it, it regretted it very much because there was a railway in India that was built by Japan. At that time, the Indian government used the railway project as a political bargaining chip to cooperate with Japan. Japan even stated that it would provide a low-interest loan to India to build the railway, which made India very happy.
But I didn't expect that the railway was not only slow to be repaired, but also had great quality problems. The people were very dissatisfied with this and accused the Indian government of inaction and wasting money, which gave the Indian government a headache.
Compared with Laos, India's geographical environment is relatively superior. If China had to repair it, it would have been repaired and opened to traffic long ago, and the quality was also very good. The money for Laos to build railways was paid by China. This suddenly made the Indian government angry. It shouldn't have chosen Japan
at the beginning, but in the process of building the China-Laos Railway, the Chinese engineering team encountered unprecedented difficulties. Because Laos has many mountains, dense vegetation and very complex terrain, it often encounters various problems, unbearable high temperatures, a large number of harmful gases and unpredictable geological disasters.
Especially when digging a tunnel, the engineering team found that the conditions inside the tunnel were very harsh and the salt content of the rocks was very high. If an effective solution was not taken to solve the problem, it would cause great corrosion to the main structure of the tunnel, affect the life of the tunnel, and even collapse.
The railway construction period cannot be delayed too long. Faced with such a difficult problem, the engineering team did not give up, but tried every means to carry out a lot of exploration. Because of the changing conditions of the rocks, the engineering team had to grout and reinforce them from many angles.
Finally, after various measures, the problem of high salt content of rocks was successfully solved, which is a miracle in the history of world architecture. Media around the world are rushing to report that China is worthy of being an infrastructure madman, and has solved the world's technological problems in the shortest time.
Before the China-Laos Railway, China could only complete trade with Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries on the Indochina Peninsula by sea.The United States seizes this point and always causes trouble and disrupts the situation, making our country very passive.
So, at a strategic level, the China-Laos Railway not only closely ties China's economic interests with the ten ASEAN countries, but will also help China break through the US economic blockade. Of course, in addition to strategic factors, China believes in one thing more: light a lamp for others, and it will also illuminate itself while illuminating others.
But what does this matter have to do with Vietnam? I think there are several reasons:
First, Vietnam thinks it is passive in the cake of interests. After the China-Laos Railway was opened, there was no need to transfer goods between China and Laos through the docks of Vietnam, a coastal country. Vietnam could not make a profit, so naturally felt dissatisfied.
Second, One reason why Vietnam is a little uncomfortable. Vietnam has always regarded itself as the orthodox inheritance of Chinese civilization, and feels that they are on par with China, but in terms of national strength, they cannot be compared with China.
Third and are the most heartbreaking points that make Vietnam. As early as 2001, Vietnam began to absorb funds and technology internationally, intending to build a railway connecting Vietnam's north and south. At that time, China enthusiastically extended a hand of friendship to Vietnam and made a generous commitment: We will provide technology to help Vietnam build railways.
When the United States heard that China wanted to help, it was not willing to be outdone. It also encouraged his younger brothers to join in the fun and expressed their help in Vietnam. And Japan was also competing with China at that time.
Naive Vietnamese thought they were hit by the pie in the sky, so they finally chose to cooperate with Japan. But what Vietnam never expected was that Japan had no interest in building railways because what they were really interested in was destroying China-Vietnam relations. But I didn't expect that Vietnam Railway was not built, and the China-Laos Railway, which was later than me, was completed and opened to traffic. This made Vietnam even more regretful. The opening and operation of the China-Laos Railway has opened up a new era of railway transportation in Laos, profoundly changed the transportation pattern of Laos, and realized Laos' long-cherished wish of going from land-locked country to the mainland United Nations; it will greatly facilitate people's travel, promote the development and urbanization of resources such as tourism, agriculture, and water conservancy along the route, and help the development of economic parks such as Vientiane Saiseta Comprehensive Development Zone, , China-Laos Mohan -Moding Economic Cooperation Zone.
However, we cannot compare Laos with China. After all, Laos' national GDP is not as large as Kunming. The impact of this trade volume on my country is really small, but it is a particularly big dividend for Laos. Moreover, during the railway construction process, China invested 70% and the remaining 30% were mostly loans provided by China. Of course, the Lao Prime Minister must pray sincerely, and this advantage can be taken into great importance.
However, the completion of this landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative has hurt the nerves of the United States, Europe and other countries. They are not fools. The completion of the China-Laos Railway suddenly broke the Malacca dilemma they were deliberately creating. For a long time, international trade has mainly relied on sea transportation, while Malacca Strait is the most important maritime lifeline. 80% of my country's imported oil and more than 60% of exported goods need to be transported through the Malacca Strait.
Therefore, the important position of the Strait of Malacca in my country's trade is self-evident. Since the status of the Strait of Malacca is so important, the United States has also been very interested in it. Now, the United States and India have established military bases on both sides of Malacca. As long as our ships pass through Malacca, they will be monitored by these two countries, making us very passive.
If one day Suez Canal incident appears in the Strait of Malacca, then the large amount of materials we need cannot be imported, that is, we are in a hurry and can't do it. Europe, the United States and other countries also value this, so they believe that as long as they control the Strait of Malacca, it is equivalent to curbing the throat of China's trade.
This trick is really fierce, because the Strait of Malacca is indeed the best channel for China's import and export trade, no matter what. But the United States thought that this would be able to strike China, so they thought it was too simple.Because in addition to sea transportation, railway transport also has huge carrying capacity and low cost. Once an accident occurs, it can be used as a temporary alternative channel for sea transport.
For this reason, my country has invested hundreds of billions of yuan to build Pan-Asia Railway Network in Southeast Asia, and the China-Laos Railway is just one of them. This railway network is centered on Kunming, the eastern line connects Vietnam, the central line passes through Laos, Thailand, Malaysia , Singapore , and the western line runs through Myanmar, and there is another horizontal line in the middle, connecting the three vertical lines of the east, middle and west together.
And in these countries on the Pan-Asian Railway Network, they can enjoy the dividends brought by railways and will naturally spare no effort to help China. If the Strait of Malacca encounters special circumstances, we can unload goods directly at any port in these countries and then trade through the Pan-Asia Railway Network.
Therefore, whether for China or Laos, this China-Laos railway is a good thing that benefits the present and the future forever
