A Tale of Two Nations
Asia Times reports on China: A 600km/h maglev train prototype will be ready for trial runs in 2020. Then, work will start on a 200-km section of track made of vacuum tubes to conduct experiments to verify the cutting-edge, high-temperature superconducting maglev theory and ultimately push the speed limit to 1,000km/h (significantly faster than air travel).
Readers needn’t be reminded of what is happening in the U.S., where very little is being done on infrastructure and every possible attempt is being made to keep coal around another century or two.
Anyone who thinks this bodes well for American competitiveness in the global marketplace is sadly mistaken.
Now, some cynics believe that the U.S. president is more concerned about himself than America’s long-term ability to remain competitive. Perish the thought.
Craig,
“and every possible attempt is being made to keep coal around another century or two”.
I’m not sure whether you are referring to China or the US ?
Investment in US coal is stagnant while China is pouring money and resources into coal technology and opening new mines on a gigantic scale.
China has just finished laying out an investment strategy to extend coal generation into the Twenty-Second century, while you are still obsessing about an American President with about five years remaining in office.
River and port facilities are being built and widened to allow coal imports to be shipped directly into China’s industrial heartland.
What do you think provides the energy for all that steel and cement production to build such projects?
The logistic and dynamics of mass transportation work much better in an over crowded nation (China has five times the US populations) where individualism is discouraged and government decisions go unchallenged or criticized.
The Chinese authorities don’t need to worry about protestors, regulations (environmental or otherwise) winning elections, accounting for budgets, land rights, public opinion etc.
Not do they need to worry about telling the truth in public announcements.
Try living in China and posting remarks about CCP officials or President Xi using the same epithets as you describe the us President ! I’m sure you would enjoy a stay in the No.71 Peoples Rehabilitation and Re-Education Work Camp!
There you could discuss the joys of the PRC with a couple of million fellow prisoners ranging from dissents, Tibetans, Uighurs, and victims of corrupt officials.
Maybe you would enjoy a healthy debate with the genocidal Zhu Hailun, head of the powerful Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party in the Xinjiang region.
Zhu Hailun planned and executed a campaign to sweep up a million or more Uighurs into detention camps. Along the way several hundred thousand have simply ‘disappeared’, and the land and homes confiscated.
Hey, but the could just parole you promising you 10 years off your 25 year sentence if you work in the rare earth mines.
You should be proud to volunteer as the products make possible Wind Turbines and Solar panels.
It would be a great deal as the working conditions ensure you a short sentence. The life expectancy for such workers is about 8 years!
But, no need to worry, a good little “fellow traveler” and “True believer” would never raise your voice in such a political environment. (nor would I).
But, the difference that while neither of us live under the CCP, I’m not fawning over Chinese propaganda and turning a hypocritical blind eye to CCP iniquity.