Taiwan High-speed Railway Company issued a press release on the 2nd stating that the company's new train procurement case is underway and has not yet been finalized. "Please do not make one-sided speculations." Taiwan High-speed Railway made this statement because the day before, Huang Maoxiong, a member of the company's board of directors, said that Taiwan High-speed Railway will purchase a new generation of trains within one or two years and is negotiating with Japan.
Taiwan's high-speed rail is known as "European and Japanese mixed race". In fact, it is mainly based on the Japanese system. Both train driving control and signal systems are based on Japanese patents. Due to the high reliance on Japanese technology, after the Taiwan High-speed Railway launched a new train procurement plan in 2019, only invited Japanese companies to participate in the bidding, and the bids were cancelled twice in February 2020 and January 2021 respectively. Taiwan High-speed Railway stated that the reason for the scrap bid was "the gap between the manufacturer's quotation and market conditions was too large and some bid documents did not comply with the norms." A director of Taiwan's high-speed rail complained that the price of the same train sold to Taiwan by Japan is three times that of Japan. "It is very unreasonable to buy a train with the price of an airplane." Taiwan has bargained for more than half a year, but the price remains high.
The deadlock of "only Japanese manufacturers are allowed to ask for prices everywhere, and Taiwan's high-speed rail is not allowed to pay back the money by taking the land" obviously cannot satisfy Taiwan's high-speed rail companies. In March this year, the company launched its third bid, inviting several manufacturers to participate in the bidding, and there are rumors that it includes European manufacturers. Japanese politicians came after Taiwan's high-speed rail seemed to be planning to say "no" to Japanese companies.
In August this year, Keiji Koya, the president of the so-called "Japanese and Chinese Parliamentary Committee", visited Taiwan and met with Tsai Ing-wen, Lai Ching-te and Su Zhenchang, all mentioned the procurement of Taiwan's high-speed rail trains, and strongly praised the Japanese Shinkansen as a "good system" and "Taiwan high-speed rail is the most specific symbol of Taiwan-Japan cooperation." He said more nakedly that he hopes the DPP authorities can assist in "successful resolution." Coincidentally, Japan's so-called "representative to Taiwan" Quan Yutai also said on the evening of the 1st that the Taiwan high-speed railway, which did not have a "major accident", was a "symbol of Japan-Taiwan friendship."
While shouting "Taiwan-Japan friendship", Japan offered sky-high-speed rail and regarded Taiwan's high-speed rail as "a fat sheep to be slaughtered", which made public opinion on the island very dissatisfied. He Sishen, a special professor at the Japanese Department of Taiwan University, pointed out that the Japanese quotation exceeds the market. Not to mention the cheap and good mainland high-speed rail, even the European high-speed rail is not as expensive as Japan. "We can understand that Japan wants to sell its own high-speed rail; but if Taiwan and Japan are really friendly, Japan cannot ask for prices everywhere, so "maintain, trap, and kill" Taiwan, right?"
Taiwanese netizens also said that Japan will offer prices casually, "it is obvious that it is necessary to eat Taiwan"; since Japan emphasizes "Taiwan-Japan friendship", then it should show sincerity. Some netizens even said that, taking into account the best choice, the high-speed rail in the mainland is the best choice.
Source: Taishai
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