Anscheinend gibt es politische Differenzen zwischen China und Japan, und nun fürchtet man in Japan weniger Chancen bei den Bahnprojekten zu haben, obwohl man sich immer noch recht optimistisch zeigt. Auch interessant ist, dass man Siemens bei einem Projekt anscheinend ausgeschlossen hat.
China to use rail contract as carrot
Kazumasa Higashi Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
The construction of a 12,000-kilometer high-speed railway network throughout China at a cost of more than 10 trillion yen will begin this year, and is scheduled for completion in 2020.
In addition to the railway lines linking Wuhan, Hubei Province, and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, on which trains will travel at 300 kph, China also plans to invite companies to tender bids to supply high-speed trains for the new system.
This is a great opportunity for Japan, which has a consortium of six companies hoping to enter a bid, but the Chinese government seems likely to use the project as a diplomatic card.
The fate of the consortium, therefore, will continue to hang in the balance.
On Jan. 20, China's Railway Ministry will receive international tenders for technical consulting services for three sections--Wuhan to Guangzhou; Zhengzhou, Henan Province, to Xian, Shanxi Province; and Beijing to Tianjin, on which construction begins this year.
Japan Railway Technical Service is expected to submit a bid.
Of the three sections, the sections through Wuhan and Zhengzhou will be designed to accommodate speeds of 350 kph so trains can travel at 300 kph, a speed similar to that of the fastest Shinkansen bullet train.
In January, China's State Council, which is similar to the Japanese Cabinet, approved the plan to build the railway network, under which four systems would link the country's south and north and another four would link its east and west.
The three sections comprise the first stage of construction.
The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway project, for which Japanese, German and French leaders have tried to help companies from their countries win contracts, was incorporated as part of the national project, but the Beijing-Shanghai system was not selected for construction this time.
According to sources close to the Japanese consortium, it will be difficult for the Chinese government to make a decision based on political considerations with the three countries involved.
"The Chinese government had no choice but to incorporate the Beijing-Shanghai system into the project," the sources said.
According to sources close to the Chinese government, the Railway Ministry plans to invite companies' bids to provide trains capable of speeds of 250 kph to 300 kph as early as summer.
The Japanese consortium, which includes Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi, Ltd., is expected to tender a bid with the upgraded version of the Shinkansen Hayate train.
The Japanese consortium's rivals are German industrial giant Siemens AG, which sells high speed InterCity Express trains, and Alstom SA, a leading French industrial firm that markets TGV trains.
The three undoubtedly will compete fiercely for the contract.
Last year, Alstom and the Japanese consortium won a contract to provide 480 coaches to form 60 trains capable of running at 200 kph for a plan to speed up existing lines under a different project.
Most of the coaches' specifications were those of the Hayate train.
An employee of one of the six Japanese firms said the consortium was confident in winning the next tender.
On Dec. 28, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei told the Japan-China New Century Association, a suprapartisan group headed by House of Representative member Otohiko Endo, that the trains proposed by the Japanese consortium had met China's requirements.
"But the current chill in China-Japan relations has put an end to the consortium's efforts," he said.
Xu Jialu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said he realized that the Shinkansen train was good for the Beijing-Shanghai project. "I can push for the the Shinkansen train if Japan changes its political approach," he said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine irritated China, as did the government issuing a tourist visa to Taiwan's former President Lee Ten-hui, and controversy concerning its territorial claim to the Senkaku islands.
The vice chairman's remark, therefore, is regarded as a call on the Japanese government to make political concessions, while China uses the high-speed railway project as a carrot.
Siemens, which was said to be the top contender for the bid to supply trains for China's existing railways, was not allowed to take part in the bidding.
The reason remains unknown, but a Japanese company employee believes the German firm upset the Chinese government.
The Japanese consortium could make the same mistake too. The Japan-China relationship is said to be economically hot and politically cool.
Bids, which are judged on quality and price, can be used by China as a political card. It remains unknown whether the Japanese consortium can overcome the difficulties.
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