China to build, renovate 770,000 km of urban underground pipelines

China will build and renovate 770,000 kilometers of urban underground pipelines during the 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030, an official said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

The country's existing urban underground pipelines run a total length of 3.9 million kilometers, with the total built up utility tunnels running 7,700 kilometers, said Chen Shaopeng, director of the building energy efficiency and sci-tech department at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

This year, China is mulling multi-trillion-yuan investment through a "Six Networks" initiative, as the country works to expand domestic demand and stabilize economic growth, with the "Six Networks" including water networks, new-type power grids, computing power networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks and logistics networks.

As one of the "Six Networks," urban underground pipeline networks comprises of gas, water supply, drainage, sewage, heating pipelines and utility tunnels.

Chen said, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China plans to build and renovate 200,000 kilometers of gas pipelines, 175,000 kilometers each of drainage and water supply pipelines, 100,000 kilometers of sewage pipelines, and 120,000 kilometers of heating pipelines.

"[We will] advance the construction and renovation of urban drainage facilities, including drainage pipes and canals, pumping stations, flood discharge channels, storage facilities and smart platforms. For water supply networks, the focus is on upgrading aging and damaged city water distribution pipes. As for gas pipeline networks, the priority is renovating pipelines with outdated materials and serious corrosion. For heating networks, the focus is on carrying out the urban heating 'warmth project' and accelerating the renovation of aging heating pipelines and inefficient heat exchange stations," said Chen.

Guan Peng, director of the Department of Fixed Asset Investment with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the press conference that the NDRC and the Ministry have actively supported underground pipeline projects through ultra-long special treasury bonds.

"In 2026, a fund of 160 billion yuan (about 23.6 billion U.S. dollars) in [ultra-long special treasury bond] has been arranged, 25 billion yuan more than the previous year, to [actively] support the construction and renovation of urban underground pipeline networks, including gas, drainage, water supply and heating," said Guan.

Alongside physical construction and renovation, relevant departments will strengthen digital monitoring of urban infrastructure, enabling real-time supervision, dynamic risk alerts and rapid emergency response.

China to build, renovate 770,000 km of urban underground pipelines

China to build, renovate 770,000 km of urban underground pipelines

Japan's ongoing push to revise its pacifist constitution and expand military buildup escalate regional tension, warned Japanese lawyer Kyoko Oe, who urged adherence to pacifism and vigilance against the government's dangerous moves.

Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office last October, the Japanese government has renewed its push to revise the country's pacifist constitution and accelerated a series of military expansion measures, including increasing defense spending, deploying long-range missiles, and easing restrictions on arms exports.

Speaking on the dangerous policy shifts, Oe criticized the Takaichi administration for bypassing public will.

"We believe that when Japanese citizens are not demanding constitutional reform, pushing it forward through a parliamentary majority clearly violates the principle of popular sovereignty and the obligation to respect the constitution. Moreover, the content of the revision itself is extremely dangerous. [The government] is attempting to change pacifist principles of the Japanese constitution -- the most fundamental part -- and abandon basic concepts, including the renunciation of war and not maintaining military forces," said Oe.

The Japanese government has aggressively accelerated war readiness even under the current constitution, said Oe, adding that amending it will grant the Self-Defense Forces even greater freedom of action at the constitutional level.

"If the constitution is amended, the Self-Defense Forces will gain greater freedom of action at the constitutional level than they have now, and legal interpretations will develop in that direction. Even while the current constitution remains effective, the Japanese government has already forcibly advanced war preparations. For example, manufacturing long-range missiles, which were previously considered unacceptable to possess, and deploying them domestically; conducting joint war games and military exercises with the United States; and massively manufacturing and exporting weapons overseas," said Oe.

The lawyer also criticized Takaichi's provocative remarks on China, saying they have sharply strained bilateral ties and undermined peace and stability in the region.

"We believe that due to Takaichi's remarks made last November, China-Japan relations have become very tense and are deteriorating. Legal experts believe that Takaichi's remarks contain multiple obvious errors. Takaichi should frankly retract the relevant remarks and apologize. Only by building mutual trust with neighboring countries can we maintain our peace, and the peace of East Asia and even the peace of Asia. We believe that what the Takaichi administration is doing runs completely counter to what the Japanese people truly wish to achieve," Oe said.

Japan's constitution revision, military buildup fuel regional tensions: lawyer