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China may build rail tunnel under Mount Everest, state media reports China may build rail tunnel under Mount Everest, state media reports
(about 7 hours later)
A railway between China and Nepal that could include a tunnel under Mount Everest is under consideration, Chinese state media said Thursday, as Beijing builds links with a country India regards as firmly within its sphere of influence. China is considering extending a railway line linking the country to Nepal via a tunnel under Mount Everest, according to Chinese state media.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond, and an extension running as far as the international border is already being planned “at Nepal’s request”, the China Daily newspaper reported, quoting an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The proposal is the latest in a series of ambitious rail schemes Beijing is reportedly examining. It comes amid scepticism about whether some of the projects will ever get off the ground and at a time of a growing Chinese presence in Nepal, which has caused some concern in rival regional power India.
This is expected to be completed by 2020, it cited a Tibetan official as saying. The Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and beyond, and an extension running as far as the international border is already being planned “at Nepal’s request”, the China Daily quoted a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering as saying.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Kathmandu in December and, according to Nepalese reports, said the line could eventually be extended to the Nepalese capital and further, potentially providing a crucial link between China and the huge markets of India. The project is expected to be completed by 2020, the newspaper cited a Tibetan official as saying. Extending the line would potentially forge a crucial link between China and the huge markets of India. It was raised by the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, on a visit to Kathmandu in December, according to Nepalese reports.
Such a plan could see a tunnel being built under Mount Everest, the China Daily said. “The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels,” railway expert Wang Mengshu told the China Daily, referring to Mount Everest by its Tibetan name.
“The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels,” expert Wang Mengshu told the newspaper, referring to Everest by its Tibetan name. Owing to the challenging Himalayan terrain, with its remarkable changes in elevation, trains on any line to Kathmandu would probably have a maximum speed of 75mph (120km/h), he added.
He said that, due to the challenging Himalayan terrain with its “remarkable” changes in elevation, trains on any line to Kathmandu would probably have a maximum speed of 120 km/h. Last year, another state-run newspaper, the Beijing Times, reported that China was considering building a high-speed railway line to the US that would run for 8,080 miles, about 1,865 miles further than the Trans-Siberian railway. It would also include about 125 miles of undersea tunnel, which would be the world’s longest, crossing the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.
The proposal underscores China’s influence in the impoverished Himalayan nation, where Beijing has for years been building roads and investing billions of dollars in hydropower and telecommunications. The Times also listed another three international high-speed rail projects that are in various stages of planning and development.
Chinese tourism to Nepal, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres, is also climbing. One would run from London via Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Kiev and Moscow, where it would split into two routes, one of which would run to China through Kazakhstan and the other through eastern Siberia. Another would begin in the far-western Chinese city of Urumqi and then run through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey to Germany, and the last would begin in the south-west city of Kunming and end in Singapore.
Beijing’s increasing role has raised alarms in New Delhi that China, already closely allied to Pakistan, is forging closer economic ties with Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal in a deliberate strategy to encircle India. It was unclear to what extent China had consulted any of the other countries whose consent would be required, although it was announced in August that Thailand’s military junta had approved a $23bn (£13.6bn) transport project that would see two high-speed railways link up directly with Kunming, via Laos, by 2021. The line would form part of the planned route to Singapore, which would also run through Malaysia.
In an apparent counter-move, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged late last year that South Asia’s largest economy would fund a series of regional investments and free up its markets to its neighbours’ exporters. The growing Chinese presence in Nepal goes beyond roads and railways, with massive hydroelectric projects, airports and a pilgrimage centre at Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, all slated to receive substantial funding from Beijing.
But India has struggled to compete with China’s financial muscle. The number of tourists from China is also rising rapidly. Though overall tourist arrivals by air declined in 2014, visitors from China grew by nearly 20% to more than 71,107. More flights connections are also planned.
Chinese plans to expand the rail network in Tibet have also come under criticism from rights groups including the International Campaign for Tibet, which has warned of the project’s “dangerous implications for regional security and the fragile ecosystem of the world’s highest and largest plateau”. Chinese-made goods flood the markets of Kathmandu and Pokhara, the western Nepalese city, and new language schools teaching Mandarin – generously subsidised by Beijing – are increasingly popular.
“The Chinese government’s claim that rail expansion on the plateau simply benefits tourism and lifts Tibetans out of poverty does not hold up to scrutiny and cannot be taken at face value,” ICT president Matteo Mecacci said in a statement last year. Indian analysts say Beijing’s influence is a concern but often exaggerated.
“The Chinese are giving it a hard try but the ties with India are very strong,” said G Parthasarathy, a retired senior Indian diplomat and commentator. “There’s a natural geography and history to our relationship [with Nepal]. Yes, they can build a few roads but they can’t employ five million Nepalese. And how many Nepalis are migrating to China? Then there are affinities and culture too.”
The rivalry between the two Asian powers is intense, however, with India scoring some successes recently in pushing back against Beijing’s efforts to extend Chinese influence into areas such as Sri Lanka, traditionally seen as Delhi’s backyard. A change of government in Sri Lanka has led to megaprojects funded by Chinese loans and built by Chinese companies being shelved.
But Indian strategists are most worried about Bejing’s links with India’s western neighbour.
“We are much more concerned about the Chinese relationship with Pakistan, than with Nepal,” said Parthasarathy.
Chinese plans to expand the rail network in Tibet have come under criticism from rights groups including the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), which has warned of the project’s “dangerous implications for regional security and the fragile ecosystem of the world’s highest and largest plateau”.
“The Chinese government’s claim that rail expansion on the plateau simply benefits tourism and lifts Tibetans out of poverty does not hold up to scrutiny and cannot be taken at face value,” the ICT president, Matteo Mecacci, said last year.