Over the past four years, China has switched from being an importer of high-speed trains to the world’s largest manufacturer. Much of this can be attributed to the transfer of foreign technology to Chinese state-owned enterprises. How have Chinese government policies and economic heft aided this effort?
By Spike Nowak
Sept. 3 – Traveling at 300 kilometers per hour, a passenger on China’s domestically-manufactured high-speed trains can go from Beijing to Shanghai, approximately the same distance as Delhi to Mumbai, in less than five hours. Four years ago, the same trip on an older Chinese-manufactured train would have taken more than 12 hours.
China has now become one of the largest manufacturers of high-speed trains in the world. How has it achieved this in such a short time? The same question could be asked of windmills, automobiles, computers, software, and various other products manufactured in China.
Technology transfer – a process by which technology, knowledge, skills and manufacturing methodologies are transferred from one country to another – has made all this possible. Continue reading →