According to the Vietnam Daily Express on April 23, Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment recently said that the country plans to start construction of two high-speed railways by 2030, one of which will be connected to China. Vietnam's Ministry of Transport said in a statement that it would build a high-speed railway from Hanoi to Lang Son province on the border with China's Guangxi province. This means that the high-speed railway connecting China and Vietnam will be built, which is definitely a major engineering construction project.
Cooperation with China has become the consensus of all countries, and China has surpassed the United States in terms of influence and cooperation priorities in Southeast Asia for the first time. The rise in the east and the fall in the west have become the basic characteristics of the current international situation, which is the epitome of the increasingly clear general trend of international development. In the past, many countries may have given preference to the United States, because after all, the heyday of the United States was hailed as a beacon and the ultimate goal of human society. However, many countries will have different answers now, and the United States is still an important option, but China's choice priority has been significantly improved. With the exception of the younger brother of the US allies, most countries have begun to give priority to cooperating with China. China has become the most trustworthy and worthy of cooperation.
Southeast Asia's perception and trust of China and the United States have undergone major changes, and China has surpassed the United States to become the number one for the first time. Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" website reported that the "Southeast Asia Situation Report: 2024" was officially released on April 2. According to the report, more respondents chose China this year for the assumption that they would have to choose sides between China and the United States, and for the first time since the question was added in 2020, China has overtaken the United States as the top choice.
This shows that China's influence has surpassed that of the United States and has become the most influential country in Southeast Asia. Most Southeast Asian countries are optimistic about China and believe in China, but their confidence in the United States as a strategic partner and in ensuring regional security has declined significantly. The survey results show that China continues to be seen as the most influential country in Southeast Asia, both economically and politically. This result also shows that China is beginning to become the priority choice for cooperation in Southeast Asia.
Seeing the general trend, Vietnam reacted very quickly and regarded cooperation with China as an important starting point. Southeast Asian countries have begun to regard cooperation with China as the highest priority, and they all want to seize the huge opportunities brought by cooperation with China. In the face of such a general trend, Vietnam still reacted very quickly. Vietnam immediately put cooperation with China as a priority strategic direction and put cooperation with China in the most important position. The Vietnamese leader visited China for the first time and reached a strategic cooperation agreement with China. Vietnam's current economic situation is not particularly optimistic, especially after encountering the wealth harvest of the United States, and cooperation with China is also an important way out of this predicament.
Senior Vietnamese officials visited China in a timely manner to seek important help from China, especially in the construction of railways. Vietnam has made good achievements in recent years, but there are still many difficulties in maintaining its rapid development, the most important of which is the problem of weak infrastructure. Vietnam is a long and narrow country, and railway transportation is very important, but the railway construction that Vietnam has planned for many years has never made significant progress.
Hanoi, the political center, and Ho Chi Minh City, the economic center, have no high-speed rail connections, which restricts Vietnam's internal circulation and seriously restricts Vietnam's economic development. The distance from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is about 1,000 kilometers and takes 33 hours, which is very unfavorable for Vietnam's development. The construction of a high-speed railway connecting major cities has become Vietnam's biggest dream and the most critical to accelerating Vietnam's economy.
The Vietnamese senior official visited China again, and the focus was on asking China to help build a high-speed railway. Vietnam's Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung visited China, focusing on discussing cooperation with China in railway construction. The purpose of Vietnam's visit is very clear, that is, to reach a consensus with China on the issue of railway construction, and to use China's technological advantages in high-speed rail to obtain opportunities for rapid development of high-speed rail. Vietnam's high-speed rail project was planned earlier, and the corresponding high-speed rail construction project began to be planned in 2005. It can be said that Vietnam's planning time for high-speed rail is not too far behind China's, but after nearly 20 years of planning, Vietnam's high-speed rail has not made great progress.
Vietnam does not have the capacity to build high-speed railways independently, not only does it lack the corresponding technology, but it is also very difficult to prepare the corresponding funds. Vietnam's initial choice for high-speed rail construction was to cooperate with Japan in an attempt to realize its own high-speed rail dream with Japan's help. Vietnam and Japan began to reach an agreement of intent to build a high-speed railway in 2007. According to reports, the high-speed rail construction agreement between Vietnam and Japan has a total value of 58.7 billion US dollars, with a total length of 1,500 kilometers, connecting the north and south of Vietnam, passing through 20 provinces and cities, and the construction period is up to 20 years. However, after reaching an agreement with Vietnam, Japan did not make efforts to move forward with the project, and the construction was always on hold.
Japan has repeatedly played with Vietnam, and each time it has promised Vietnam, but each time there has been no concrete action to promote construction. In the past 20 years, Japan and Vietnam have revised their railway construction plans many times and adjusted their specific construction plans many times. However, either because of financial problems or technical maturity problems, Japan has never helped Vietnam to substantially promote the construction of corresponding high-speed railways. Japan has played Vietnam with each promise, and this has led to Vietnam's construction plans remaining on paperwork and drawings. When Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Japan in 2023, he once again hinted at asking Japan to help with high-speed rail, but Japan was still not very interested.
Vietnam hopes that China will help clean up the bad debts left by Japan, so as to really help Vietnam accelerate the construction of high-speed rail projects. In the past, Vietnam has been trying to seek Japan's help to build a high-speed railway, rather than seeking China's help, and the most fundamental reason is that Vietnam has its own little ninety-nine. Vietnam does not want to rely on China for high-speed rail construction, and wants to use the opportunity to build high-speed rail to move closer to Japan. Now Vietnam has no choice but to take the initiative to ask China for help, even India has begun to build high-speed rail, if Vietnam does not exert its strength, it will really fall behind in an all-round way. Vietnam wants China to help clean up the bad debts left by Japan, because it takes a fancy to China's advanced high-speed rail technology and China's faith in its word.
China has already helped Southeast Asian countries build a number of high-speed railways and has mature experience, but Vietnam is also fickle, and we should be wary of this. The China-Laos Railway built by China for Laos has achieved a total cargo transportation volume of more than 10 billion yuan in just nine months of operation. As of March 3, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has been operating safely for 139 days, and the cumulative number of passengers carried has exceeded 2 million. It can be said that China has a very mature experience in the construction of high-speed railways, and there are absolutely no problems in technology. However, Vietnam is a country that is prone to backsliding, and in the process of cooperation, we should still be vigilant and earnestly safeguard our own interests.