Young Chinese engineers dedicated to overseas dredging projects

A team of Chinese engineers averaging 33 years in age are spending China's May 4 Youth Day, which falls on Saturday this year, far away from home in working for an overseas dredging project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The project is part of the construction of another man-made island in the UAE, and the young people have worked on China's dredging vessel Tian Kun around the globe on various dredging projects since 2019, when Tian Kun was first put into operation.

The China-built vessel is 140 meters long and 27.8 meters wide, and is the largest in Asia. It can dig up to 35 meters deep under the sea floor and dredge 6,000 cubic meters per hour, according to its investor, Tianjin Dredging Co., a subsidiary of China Communication Construction Co.

"It is actually to create an island in a specific shape with the soil dredged from under the sea floor and retrieved through pipelines, so as to add a new tourist landmark for the city of Abu Dhabi. As this site is a global hotspot for dredging operations, it is like we have come to compete at an Olympic arena or international arena from our home or a venue for the Asian Games. So, we're going all out here," said Huo Zongjie, captain of the team on Tian Kun.

To meet the tight deadline, the team is working around the clock now and the sailors have to replace the vessel's reamers every six hours.

The dredging, delivery and smart control systems of the vessel independently developed by China have alleviated the sailors' workload and improved work efficiency.

"After setting the parameters, we start the dredging automatically at one click. In the past, when some problems cropped up with these systems, we might need engineers from foreign countries to come aboard and shoot the troubles. But now we can make some adjustments completely on our own as we have mastered things at the core of the core, we no longer have to suffer cutthroat by others," said Wang Pin, an electrical engineer aboard Tian Kun.

In a foreign land, the crew members have to overcome the language barrier and quickly familiarize themselves with overseas work procedures and operational norms, and work closely with their foreign peers.

Safety engineer Amir Mahmood of the UAE appreciated the Chinese engineers' working attitude.

"Actually I love working with my Chinese counterparts. They are very nice, they are very good, they are super supportive, they are helping me in every way. Even though sometimes we have some language barrier but still they are always there to help me even sometimes we do communication with our sign language. We have young guys who are open to the things, who are learning the things, who are learning the new languages, who are learning the new laws, new practices. So they are working really very hard to adopt as per the situation, as per the conditions," he said.

Tian Kun has participated in the construction of important projects of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Before experiencing the extreme heat in the UAE, the crew has been to the Far East and worked in an environment of minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Young Chinese engineers dedicated to overseas dredging projects

Dominic Barton, chairman of leading global mining group Rio Tinto, warned against severing economic ties with China, saying it could lead to higher prices and slower development of new products and technologies, during an interview.

This comes as the White House announced on Tuesday new tariffs on imports of electric vehicles, solar cells and other clean-energy products from China, in a protectionist move widely believed to imperil the American ambition to enhance competitiveness and slash carbon emissions.

Many businesspersons are concerned that this newly announced tariff hike could damage global supply chains and lead to further decoupling of the U.S. from China.

During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Barton voiced his opposition to decoupling, calling it an impractical approach.

"I think there's some legitimate reasons for resilience in supply chains, and we learned that from COVID in a way, too. Everyone, every country wants to make sure they have some resiliency. But we also need to remember that the foundations of a lot of the growth we've had in the global economy and bringing hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, is because we've had global supply chains. So this idea that we're going to decouple is just ridiculous in my view. It's ridiculous and it'll have very severe consequences. We have to be very careful of that and how we think about that balance," he said.

Barton emphasized the importance of global collaboration for efficient and affordable production, especially in the shift toward sustainable energy and technologies.

"I think the challenge is we don't have a deep enough understanding, the common person like myself, of how supply chains work. We are incredibly linked in what we do. One of the consequences of a less global supply chain is higher inflation. It's just a fact. And higher inflation is not good for anyone," he said.

"Second thing is innovation. If we're going to make this energy transition, we need the materials. We also need to produce the equipment, the technology to be able to do the transition. The solar panels, the electric vehicles, the batteries, and it's in everyone's interest that we have the most efficient, low-cost way of doing it. And so these are factors that we need to make sure we keep in mind in a more politicized environment, because there are real consequences to changing that," Barton added.

Decoupling with China carries risk of major disruptions: Rio Tinto chairman