Vietnam's high-speed rail "American sponsor" ran away, while China-Vietnam railway announced the start of construction, and foreign media lamented: The Vietnamese took the wrong path.
Recently, Vietnam held a grand groundbreaking ceremony. Deputy Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Vice Minister of Construction Nguyen Minh Huy, Chinese Ambassador He Wei, and other officials attended, jointly announcing that the first phase of the China-Vietnam cross-border railway project officially started construction.
According to public information, this first-phase project is the section within Vietnam of the China-Vietnam railway. It starts from Hai Phong, the largest port city in northern Vietnam, goes west through the capital Hanoi, and reaches Lao Cai province on the Sino-Vietnamese border, with a total length of about 419 kilometers, 18 stations, a maximum design speed of 160 km/h, using the same standard gauge as China, for both passenger and freight, and is expected to be completed by 2030. The project funding comes from the loan agreement successfully reached between Vietnam and China in September of this year.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, the Vietnamese side gave this project a very high evaluation, stating that it reflects the determination of the two countries to further deepen and enhance their comprehensive strategic partnership and build a strategic Vietnam-China community with a shared future. As this railway runs through a large part of Vietnam, at the time of the railway's commencement, the outside world could not help but recall the "North-South High-Speed Rail (Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City)" project, which has been one of Vietnam's key infrastructure projects.
In fact, the North-South High-Speed Rail project had already taken shape more than twenty years ago. For many years, its core issue has never been "whether to build it," but rather "who will build it and how." Just over half a month before the start of the China-Vietnam railway, an unusual event occurred with the North-South High-Speed Rail project - a US company that claimed to raise $10 billion in funding suddenly disappeared, not answering phone calls, and the provided address was fake. Eventually, even Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh had to admit that the government had completely lost contact with this company.
This was undoubtedly a major blow to Vietnam, because there are currently six companies interested in the "North-South High-Speed Rail" project, and the other five all rely on the Vietnamese government to pay, while this US company was the only one that claimed to bring in investment, and also the only foreign investor. Therefore, its disappearance means that Vietnam's North-South High-Speed Rail has lost its "American sponsor," and more importantly, shows that the so-called support from the United States for Vietnam is nothing but empty promises. After comparing, foreign media couldn't help but lament that the Vietnamese took the wrong path, and if they had been willing to cooperate with China, this high-speed rail might have been built long ago.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1852309140663306/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.