China is "more than 90 percent certain" to adopt Japan's bullet-train technology to build a new multi-billion dollar high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai, state press reported yesterday.
Although Transrapid International, a consortium comprising German industrial engineers ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens AG, has not yet given up hope that China would adopt its magnetic levitation or Maglev train, its prospects look dim, the Economic Observer said, citing the Ministry of Railways.
Earlier this month, German media reported that China was unlikely to proceed with its plan to build the 1,300km line based on the German space-age technology.
A senior member of the Siemens' management team said that it had received "clear signals that the decision will be taken in favor of the traditional train technology."
Hopes had been high after Shanghai installed the 430km per hour Maglev for commercial use on a line between the city's Pudong airport and downtown.
Following its successful test run earlier this year, former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji (朱隆基) said China would build a second "maglev" line from Shanghai to the eastern city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.
It was expected that Beijing-Shanghai may follow suit.
However, competition has been fierce, with France's TGV and Japan's Shinkansen bullet train vying for a contract worth an estimated US$12 billion as well as other proposals to connect major cities in China by high-speed rail.
Japan's Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said last week she wants to visit China to promote Japan's bullet train.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last