U.S. should focus more on infrastructure rather than warmongering

i first came to china to study mandarin at nankai university in the mid-1990s at that time if i wanted to visit the forbidden city or eat peking duck at trenjuda it would take three hours to get to beijing by train from tianjin but today it only takes 30 minutes by high-speed rail for the 23 years i've lived here china has focused on infrastructure and innovation one big driver is investment in high-speed rail china has already built 35 000 kilometers of high-speed rail connecting 100 cities there are more than 100 cities in china with a population of over 1 million now china has just announced that it plans to increase the total railway mileage by a third in the next 15 years from 140 000 kilometers to 200 000 total kilometers now let's compare infrastructure spending between china and japan japan has also invested heavily in high-speed rail to offset the economic stagnation of the 1980s after the plaza accord was signed however many of these trains connect big cities such as tokyo to tiny villages with only 2 000 people thus are wasted white elephant spending as very few passengers take the trains by contrast china has focused on connecting major cities to improve economic efficiency by 2035 china's declared aim is that all cities with a population greater than a half a million will be connected to high-speed rail this allows white-collar workers to move away from expensive city centers and find cheaper housing people now live in cities like tianjin where housing prices are lower and where it's easier to get ahuko yet they can commute to beijing this was unheard of when i was studying at nankai university having this world-class infrastructure is why china will not lose its manufacturing dominance in the near future despite the u.s china trade war now in the united states trains run on a much slower system the average speed of most trains is only 128 kilometers an hour compare that with 350 kilometers an hour for china's high-speed trains amtrak sasela express is in the middle of a 2.4 billion investment in infrastructure upgrading but their high speed will only be 257 kilometers an hour even with the global lead in infrastructure china's paying more attention to innovation china has announced plans to develop a maglev train capable of reaching a speed of 600 kilometers an hour with the goal of reducing the time between beijing and shanghai from the current five and a half hours to only three and a half hours the maglev train will be put into operation next year in 2021. in addition the train will connect key economic and industrial areas such as the pearl river delta with cities such as chengdu and chongqing this is going to create more economic opportunities throughout the entire country in contrast infrastructure spending in the united states has been plagued by significant delays and cost overruns now i was born in new hampshire near the debacle called the big dig in boston planning started in 1982 construction finally started in 1991 but it didn't officially conclude until 2007. it took 25 years for the project to start to end and there was a cost overrun of 190 percent moreover they're still making significant adjustments and fixes to key roads and bridges such as the leonard p zakin bunker hill memorial bridge which has some of the worst traffic in the united states now since i was born in 1977 the united states has spent too much money on wars and building weapons rather than infrastructure spending since 9 11 war and military action in the middle east and asia has cost american taxpayers like me 6.4 trillion u.s dollars america has military bases in over 80 countries since the end of world war ii the united states has warred against 37 countries while china has not gone to war with another country since the end of 1979. now president trump proposed that the u.s department of defense's budget to congress in fiscal year 2021 will be 705.4 billion u.s dollars well china's is only 178.6 billion it would be great if the united states could learn from china and focus on infrastructure innovation instead of focusing spending efforts on war just imagine how better off my fellow americans and i would be if the u.s focused not on conflict but instead on connection

Channel: CGTN

Views: 57,097

Keywords: CGTN, News, China, US, manufacture, construction, Economy, War

Id: LyhK2PQyE_w

Length: 5min 13sec (313 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020