China on Friday implemented a new train diagram for an optimized intercity and international freight train operation to smoothen functionality of domestic and global industrial and supply chains.
According to the new diagram, China now operates 93 scheduled China-Europe freight train routes, two more than the previous diagram. The country runs 17 time-tabled freight trains per week, which enhances cargo transport efficiency between China and Europe.
The new diagram also saw the launch of new international freight train routes. On Thursday, the first scheduled international intermodal train specifically for transporting commercial vehicles to Central Asia was launched in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Carrying cargo worth over 27 million yuan (about 3.8 million U.S. dollars), the road-rail international intermodal train exits China via the Horgos Port, and reaches Central Asia countries through Kazakhstan's Altynkol railway port.
"It solves the problem of railway transportation channel in Urumqi Comprehensive Bonded Zone so that the railway-road intermodal transportation procedures of commercial vehicles can be handled at the comprehensive bonded zone, which can greatly reduce our transportation costs," said Yang Guang, a cargo owner.
Meanwhile, the operation of the intercity express freight trains has been optimized. In northeast China, the multimodal express freight service from Jiamusi City in Heilongjiang Province to Bayuquan in Liaoning has increased its frequency from one train every two days to four trains per week.
In northwest China's Xi'an City, a new intercity express train X385 was launched to connect Xi'an with Lhasa and Shigatse in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
"This is the second westwards intercity express train route starting from Shaanxi, since the launch of the intermodal express train X387 between Xi'an and Urumqi X387 on March 26 this year," said Liu Shunli, the shift supervisor of operation station of Xi'an International Port.
China updates train schedule to smoothen industrial, supply chains
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
