发信人: oceann (dany), 信区: English
标 题: [好文共赏]Beijing rebuffs Tokyo’s bullet train p
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Fri Aug 8 23:02:42 2003)
Beijing rebuffs Tokyo’s bullet train promotion
By Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo and Richard McGregor in Shanghai
Published: August 6 2003 18:09 | Last Updated: August 6 2003 18:09
Chikage Ogi, Japan’s transport minister, on Thursday returned from a thre
e-day visit to China after apparently receiving a cool reception for her effor
ts to offer the bullet train, or shinkansen, as the main high-speed rail link
between Beijing and Shanghai.
The deal, estimated to be worth ¥1,500bn ($12.5bn, �11bn, £7.7bn
), pits Japanese companies against those from Germany and France, and also Chi
nese railway manufacturers, for a contract which could set the standard for fa
st trains throughout China.
Despite reports naming Japan as the leading contender, Ms Ogi got little a
ccess to Chinese leaders, failing to secure meetings with Wen Jiabao, the prim
e minister, and the senior officials from the Railways Ministry and the State
Development and Reform Commission (SDRC).
Chinese press reports said China had given Ms Ogi the “cold shoulder“. T
he shinkansen had firmed in the race after indications that Beijing was moving
against the consortium backing the German maglev (magnetic levitation) train,
which had built a commercial track in Shanghai as a showcase for other contra
cts in China.
Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, followed up Ms Ogi’s visit by
writing to Mr Wen pushing the case for the shinkansen, according to NHK, Japa
n’s national broadcaster.
China hopes to complete the link connecting two of the country’s largest
and wealthiest cities in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, and cut the
travelling time from 12 hours to about three.
Despite this apparent deadline, Zhang Guobao, the deputy of the SDRC, said
yesterday China was in no hurry to decide which system it would choose, and n
or would it commit to using solely foreign technology.
The negotiations between Beijing and Tokyo are fraught in any case, becaus
e of Japan’s invasion of the mainland in the 1930s, making China wary about p
ublic reaction to the choice of the shinkansen.
A website devoted to chronicling Japanese wrongs against China, hosted by
the China Patriotic Foundation, said yesterday it had gathered a petition with
82,752 signatures opposing the choice of the shinkansen.
Lu Yunfei, an official of the association, said that Mitsubishi, the Japan
ese conglomerate whose companies are involved with the shinkansen, “is the ma
in sponsor of Japan’s rightwing groups“.
“We should not subcontract this project to the Japanese,“ said Mr Lu.
Executives from Mitsubishi Electric will be in a delegation led by Hiroshi
Okuda, chairman of Toyota and the Japan Business Federation, the country’s m
ost powerful business lobby, that plans to visit China later this month.
The train order would be a boon to Japan’s heavy manufacturers, which hav
e seen revenues hit by a steep decline in domestic orders amid the country’s
decade-long recession.
In a practical view, firstly, the Japanese Shingansen is cheaper. An esti
mated 20 pencent cheaper than the German MagLev in its construction expenditur
e.
Secondly, the Japanese have been spending a long period of time improving
the Shingansen. It proves to be a quite comfortable vehicle in decades.
Thirdly, the geography of Japan is similar to that of our country, which f
eatures lots of mountains. The railway system to be built between Beijing and
Shanghai will be experimental. An efficient and appropriate system can be prom
oted to be built in other parts of our country, especially the south, whose ec
onomy is promising while transportation remains poor despite of fast developin
g.
Anyhow, regardless of Japanese wrongdoings in WWII, and national hatred to
ward the Japanese, its system is rather practical.
I hope we can find a way to solve the problem with insulting the people an
d hurt them as well as choosing a right resolution.
--
好想振作一点点，真的好想
<img src=http://album3.chinaren.com/album/13/93/17409313/555736.gif border=0>
※ 来源:．哈工大紫丁香 bbs.hit.edu.cn [FROM: 210.46.71.10]