A China-Laos Railway international freight train loaded with goods departed from Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Monday, marking this railway's cumulative cargo transport volume exceeding 90 million tonnes since its launch on Dec 3, 2021, according to China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd.
The railway has operated over 80,000 freight trains in total, with more than 23,000 cross-border freight trains among them.
More than 23 percent of the total cargo shipments are cross-border ones.
In 2026, the railway has been transporting over 67,000 tonnes of cargo per day on average, showing its capacity as a "golden passage" in international logistics. The Lancang-Mekong Express freight train, a fast international freight train service operating on the China-Laos Railway, has been running on a regular basis, as the railway department is building this railway's Central Asia freight train brand.
Multiple routes where scheduled China-Central Asia trains are running at speeds of 120 km per hour or 80 km per hour have been established, shortening rail transport time from Laos, Thailand and other countries to Europe to about 15 days.
"Since the opening of the China-Laos Railway, daily cross-border freight train services have increased from two at the initial stage to a peak of 23. The traction tonnage per train has also risen from 2,000 tonnes to 2,800 tonnes, representing a 40-percent increase in single-train capacity," said Fan Haipeng, official of the logistics center of China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd.
The range of commodities transported by the China-Laos Railway has expanded from just over 10 categories when the railway first opened to more than 4,000 today, which is expected to further promote the upgrading of economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.
China-Laos Railway transports over 90 million tonnes of cargo
Communist and leftist party leaders from around the world expressed full support for the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s self-governance approach and anti-corruption drive at a forum in Beijing on Tuesday, calling the practices essential to the Party's vibrant rule and a model worth studying for the rest of the world.
They were in the Chinese capital to attend the 16th World Socialism Forum. Organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the two-day annual event has become a major platform for exchanges among foreign Communist Party leaders, influential leftist social activists, experts, and Chinese Marxist scholars.
This year's forum was convened shortly after the 20th CPC Central Committee concluded its fifth plenary session on Oct 29, which adopted a resolution on persevering with full and rigorous Party self-governance.
The plenary session also called for fortifying the cultural-ethical foundations for championing integrity and disdaining graft, and for enhancing coordinated efforts to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to commit corruption.
"We've just heard in the opening session this morning, a number of speeches reflecting on the key developments within the fifth plenary session, in particular the whole question of self-reform and party self-governance. And this is critical. Some of the contributions this morning have been really important for me and for other people in this World Socialism Forum, very important contributions because they stress that they have to be deeply rooted in a commitment to the people, they have to be people centered," said Alexander Fraser Gordon, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.
"We think that the outcomes of this session is very important for the Party ruling, Marxist vibrant ruling and Marxist party. And we think that the self-governance and anti-corruption plan are very important for the continuous building of a party. And the anti-corruption [campaign] is a very important plan in order to clean the party from any dysfunction," said Said Bakkali, international secretary of the Party of Progress and Socialism in Morocco.
Some participants also shared their insights on how the CPC's experience could contribute to broader global development.
"It's absolutely true that it's open a new window that this in Europe we didn't open yet, which is to say how can we improve political parties, as a working class or populous class representation in our own term, in order to reach a good governance. It's a base that we didn't answer in Europe yet, so I'm seriously sure that this new contribution from China is going to help us open that window," said Marga Ferre, president of Transform!Europe.
"I think that it is very important, for a party to reflect on the [re]form and the self-governance of the party. Because this party has huge responsibilities in China and I would say for the world. And a proper management of the party and an enhanced capacity of self-reform of the party is very, very important. It's not a side issue -- it is probably a central issue," said Vladimiro Giacche, vice president of the Marx 21 Political and Cultural Association.
The forum also featured topics including the impact of the CPC's 105-year history of struggle on the course of world history and global challenges in party governance and China's approach to overcoming difficulties in party development, among others.
Global communist, leftist leaders endorse CPC's self-governance approach at Beijing forum
