A Study On China's High-speed Railway Diplomacy

As a new research topic,China's high-speed railway diplomacy has garnered worldwide attention.Currently,China is pushing vigorously ahead with its construction of New Silk Road,which calls for an unobstructed traffic interconnection network.This,while injecting inner momentum into China's high-speed railway diplomacy,provides new opportunities for its cooperation with countries along the road.Furthermore,the keen demand of these countries on developing high-speed railways propels China's implementation of its high-speed railway diplomacy.While boasting a series of advantages,China's high-speed railway diplomacy also suffers a range of setbacks,such as the poor infrastructure,sluggish economy,inadequate funds,unstable politics and non-traditional security threats of those countries.Facing fierce competitions with other high-speed railway powers,China ought to optimize the top-level design of its high-speed railway diplomacy by building effective bilateral and multilateral high-speed railway cooperative mechanism and expanding its cooperation with relevant financial organizations.In this way,the country is expected to achieve diverse capital sources for constructing its high-speed railways.As the largest country in Southeast Asia and the only ASEAN member that is a permanent member of the G-20,the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail of Indonesia garnered worldwide attention for opting the Chinese high-speed rail system.This article elaborates on the implications,characteristics and challenges of China's high-speed rail diplomacy.On this basis,this article further discusses the prospects on the cooperation of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail between China and Indonesia.On the basis of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail case study,which finds that the characteristics of China's high-speed rail diplomacy are,compatibility,diversity,complexity and so on.Applying a combinationof theoretical perspectives incorporating Geo-politics and Geo-economics.This article subjects the challenges of the cooperation on Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail by multidimensional analysis.Thisarticle argues that the prospects for this cooperation isalso overshadowed by a series of factors,such as the difficulty of acquiring land,the Natuna islands waters dispute,the increase of anti-Chinese sentiment,non-traditional security,the anticipation of low profitability on Jakarta–Bandung high-speed rail,the likelihood of continuous depreciation of the Indonesian Rupiah.It is argued herethat behave the comparative advantages of China's high-speed rail diplomacy,properly resolve the dispute over the waters of Natuna islands,enhance the Indonesian people to participate in the construction of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail,flexibly group the carriages of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail.Studying the cooperation of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail has great theoretical and realistic significance for expanding the research domain in Sino-Indonesian bilateral relations,keeping updated on the latest development in this regard,and hopefully benefiting the further development of China's high-speed rail diplomacy in Indonesia.As the two important neighboring countries of China,both Japan and India are implicated in territorial disputes with China.Against the current backdrop of high-speed rail diplomacy vigorously pursued by Japan and China,India once again garnered worldwide attention by opting for the Japanese Shinkansen.The current paper elaborates on the motivations for Japan-India cooperation in building Mumbai-Ahmadabad High-Speed Rail,and the influences thus produced on the three countries involved.On this basis,the paper further discusses the prospects for this cooperated endeavor.Applying a combination of theoretical perspectives incorporating liberal institutionalism,Geo-politics and Geo-economics,the paper subjects the strategic value of the current Japan-India cooperation to multidimensional analysis,rather than limits itself to a mere analysis of the economic efficacy of this cooperation.Adopting the Japanese Shinkansen system,Mumbai-Ahmadabad High-Speed Rail is the result of the multiple factors that function in unison,which encompass the ever-deepening diplomatic relations between Japan and India,considerations for relevant economic benefits,the Abenomics,the prospective huge profits generated by this rail,and certain factors that pertain to China.Thecooperation between Japan and India in building Mumbai-Ahmadabad High-Speed Rail,while elevating the bilateral relations between the two countries to a new height,helps to secure a stable position for the Japanese Shinkansen system initiated in India,and constitutes a severe obstacle to China's high-speed rail diplomacy.On the other hand,however,the prospects for this cooperation is also overshadowed by a series of factors,such as the likelihood of the continuous depreciation of the Japanese yen,India's initiation of a balanced high-speed rail diplomacy,India's domestic terrorism and the difficulty it encounters in expropriating land.As far as China is concerned,it ought to strengthen its research on key high-speed rail technology,learn from the comparative advantage of the Japanese Shinkansen diplomacy,conduct on-the-site investigations and seminars in an effort to boost its influences in the high-speed rail domain.Therefore,studying the motivations,influences and prospects of the Japan-India cooperation in building Mumbai-Ahmadabad High-Speed Rail has great theoretical and realistic significance for expanding the research domain in Japan-India bilateral relations,keeping updated on the latest development in this regard,and hopefully benefiting China in carrying out its high-speed rail diplomacy in India.China's high-speed railway diplomacy faces a series of challenges are that political mutual trust issue,terrorism threat,lack of talents,other high-speed railway nations comparative advantages and so on.China should enhance the top-level design of its high-speed railway diplomacy,establish strategy center for high-speed railway diplomacy studies and accelerate the cultivation of compound talents on high-speed railway diplomacy.This study is of far-reaching significance in that it helps effectively respond to the challenges of China's high-speed railway diplomacy,promote its international influence and safeguard national interests.