Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIJING10098
2006-05-24 08:24:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

TIBET RAILWAY COMPLETION ADVANCES AMID PROBLEMS

Tags:  PGOV PHUM ECON CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5421
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHBJ #0098/01 1440824
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 240824Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6431
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 010098 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/24/2021
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON CH
SUBJECT: TIBET RAILWAY COMPLETION ADVANCES AMID PROBLEMS
AND HIGH EXPECTATIONS


Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Internal Unit Chief
Susan Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 010098

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/24/2021
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON CH
SUBJECT: TIBET RAILWAY COMPLETION ADVANCES AMID PROBLEMS
AND HIGH EXPECTATIONS


Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Internal Unit Chief
Susan Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Meeting the scheduled July 1 completion date
for the high-profile Qinghai-Tibet railway line will
be a major challenge, according to an Amcit engineer
heavily involved in the project. Although the
Minister of Railways reportedly ordered the completion
date moved up to coincide with his promotion cycle,
corruption and red tape are dogging the project.
The Chinese Government has been reluctant to provide
access and topographical informational to foreign
engineers, apparently because of the heavy military
presence in the area. Local residents on the Qinghai
end of the line expressed support for the project, which
they hope will bring greater economic activity. End
Summary.

New Deadline A Major Challenge
--------------


2. (C) The completion the high-profile Golmud-Lhasa
section of the Qinghai-Tibet railway by the
anticipated July 1, 2006 launching of the first
passenger train represents a major challenge, according to
an Amcit engineer for General Electric, which has
provided the locomotive and signaling technology for
the railway. The engineer, who spends weeks at a time
in Golmud on the Qinghai-Tibet border, remarked to
poloff during a recent visit to Golmud that the
railway was originally slated for completion by July
1, 2007. Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun decided to
speed up completion of the career-making project,
however, in order to position himself for a promotion
in the run-up to the 17th Party Congress to be held in

2007. (Note: Liu has a reputation as a competent and
able administrator, but will have to overcome the
transgressions of his brother, a railway official in
Hubei province who was recently given a suspended
death sentence for ordering a contract killing. End
note.)

Coordination and Access Problems
--------------


3. (C) The rush to meet Liu's new deadline has put
major pressure on all those involved in the railway
project, including GE, whose future business in China

depends largely on the success of the railway, the
engineer asserted. He predicted that the second rail
line currently being built on the Qinghai portion of
the route will not be completed by the July 1 date and
stressed that red tape and corruption have greatly
complicated the work. GE technicians are allowed only
approximately 10 hours per week on the railway,
despite the company's repeated requests for
significantly greater access. While the Ministry of
Railways (MOR) is responsible for the project, its
coordination with other agencies involved in the
railway is weak and erratic, he observed.


4. (C) This is in part due to the sensitivity of the
railway's location, the engineer surmised. The MOR
denied GE's requests to use Global Positioning System
(GPS) technology to chart out the railway's terrain,
agreeing to provide maps only after the GE technicians
signed confidentiality agreements. When traveling as
far as a few hundred kilometers south of Golmud in
order to test the signaling stations, the engineers
encountered temporary military camps lining the
railway at intervals of about 25 kilometers. PLA
soldiers in the camps even aimed their guns at the
passing technicians, which the engineer assumed was
some sort of bad joke.


5. (C) The presence of foreigners and use of foreign
technology in the project continues to be sensitive,
the engineer stated. During Premier Wen Jiabao's May
2005 inspection of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway's
progress, the Premier reportedly fired a director
general-level MOR official. According to the
engineer, Wen asked to test the railway's
telecommunications system, which was provided by
Nortel, the only other foreign company hired to assist
with the project. The system only worked on the
second try and Wen ordered the MOR official to provide
an explanation for the initial malfunction. In the
engineer's telling, when the official subsequently
told Premier Wen that he had inquired with Nortel, the

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Premier was angry at the lack of a ready answer and
accused the official of "relying too much on foreign
technology." The hapless official was reportedly
subsequently dismissed.

Residents Cite Economic Benefits
--------------


6. (C) Residents near the railway head in Golmud were
largely supportive of the new line that will connect
their city of 270,000 to Lhasa. Both Han and Hui
Muslim residents, the largest groups in the urban
area, speculated that the new railway will stimulate
more rapid development and bring new economic
benefits, such as increased investment. Some
residents also predicted that improved transportation
infrastructure resulting from Golmud's elevated status
as a national railway hub will lower the price for
goods transported from other parts of the province and
country. Local residents highlighted the positive
developments already seen in Golmud over the past
couple years. The city's recently renovated airport,
currently only one of two in Qinghai Province,
demonstrates the increasing attention that the local,
rovincial and even central governments are payig to
this previously downtrodden and remote city, they
asserted.
RANDT