Bering Strait | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.

Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.

The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.

The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.

What could happen in China in 2015? | McKinsey & Company

What could happen in China in 2015?

What do you get when you add slower economic growth, greater volatility, and rising competition to more international flights and genuine Chinese innovation? McKinsey director Gordon Orr’s annual predictions.

December 2014 | byGordon Orr

It seemed harder to prepare my “look ahead” this year. On reflection, I believe this is because political and economic leaders in China have clear plans and supporting policies that they are sticking to. You can debate the pace at which actions are being taken, but not really the direction in which the country is traveling. This means a number of the themes I highlighted for this year will remain relevant in 2015:

What could happen in China in 2015?

Author Gordon Orr discusses his China predictions with McKinsey director Nick Leung and principal Yougang Chen.

Improving productivity and efficiency will remain the key to maintaining profitability for many companies, given lower economic growth (overall and at a sector level) and the impact of producer price deflation on multiple sectors.

The impact of technology as it eliminates jobs in services and manufacturing will become even greater (but still not in government).

As a result, the government will keep a sharper focus on net job creation and the quality of those new positions. Companies will hire even more information technologists to keep up in the race to exploit technology better than their competitors.

The push to lower pollution, and now carbon emissions, will lead to even greater investment in domestic solar and wind farms, boosting the global position of Chinese producers.

High-speed-rail construction will continue domestically and increasingly abroad, as Chinese companies become the builder of choice for high-speed rail globally.

Beyond these, there are several additional themes that will be important in 2015. I describe them below.

What else may happen in 2015? – see article:

via What could happen in China in 2015? | McKinsey & Company.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Politics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Alaska, Beijing, Bering Strait, China, Eastern Europe, Economic growth, Eurasia, Gordon Orr, High-speed rail, McKinsey, Russia, United States, Vladimir Yakunin

11/05/2014

China Says It Wants To Build Massive Railway To America

China has announced an ambitious engineering plan to build a bullet train railway to America, state media reported Thursday.

Possible route of a bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The massive railway network, nicknamed “China-Russia-Canada-America,” would run north from China, through Siberia and Russia, under the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, then down through Canada to the contiguous United States, The Guardian reports.

The trip from China to the contiguous U.S. would take less than two days, with trains traveling about 217 mph, according to The Beijing Times. China will reportedly fund the construction of the 8,079 miles of railway track, including a 125-mile underwater tunnel across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska.

But this may not be the best time for China to embark on such an epic undertaking, considering the country’s railway industry is in the red, as The Economic Times points out.

“China’s railway sector is still being haunted by deep debts. Therefore, even with the government’s support, it must persuade banks to lend a colossal amount of money,” an unnamed expert from Beijing Jiaotong University told The Economic Times.

Aside from financial challenges, many are skeptical of whether the engineering required to build such a massive network is feasible.

According to The Guardian, “The Bering Strait tunnel alone would require an unprecedented feat of engineering – it would be the world’s longest undersea tunnel – four times the length of the Channel Tunnel” connecting the United Kingdom and France.

China Daily claims that the technology needed to construct the undersea tunnel is already available. But even if it is, The Economist’s Gulliver business travel blog says the railway plan is simply not a realistic or necessary project.

“Languorous tourists might love it, just as they do the Orient Express or the Ghan train through the Australian Outback, and I suppose it might also carry some freight. But still, there is no practical case for it,” the blog post’s author writes. “Nonetheless, such ambition is to be admired in an abstract way.”

The Guardian notes that it is unclear whether China has consulted Russia, the U.S. or Canada about the project.

via China Says It Wants To Build Massive Railway To America.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics, railway, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: America, Beijing Jiaotong University, Bering Strait, Channel Tunnel, China, Economic Times, Pacific Ocean, Russia

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

Categories

Blogs I Follow

Posts tagged ‘Bering Strait’

China Says It Wants To Build Massive Railway To America

Tags

Creative Commons

Archives

Meta

Blog Stats