Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has warned the German Transrapid consortium it could be excluded from the race to build a high-speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai, if cooperation on a smaller existing project does not improve, the German weekly Focus reported.
German giants ThyssenKrupp and Siemens AG make up the Transrapid International consortium, which is currently building the world's first commercial magnetic high-speed rail link between Shanghai and its airport.
According to a Focus report to be published on Monday, Zhu has criticised Thyssen-Krupp for failing to pass on important technological information to the Chinese working on the one billion euro (US$850 million) project.
Work on building the concrete pillars for the 33-kilometer (20 miles) link between Shanghai and Pudong airport has begun. The link is to reduce the journey from 45 to eight minutes, and is to open in early 2003.
Focus said Zhu had made it known to the premier of the German state of Hesse Roland Koch during a visit to China that the Beijing-Shanghai project would be awarded to the Japanese consortium Shinkansen, if the Germans did not have confidence in the Chinese.
Last May, Zhu dangled before the German consortium the prospect of building the 1,250 kilometer (775 mile) Beijing-Shanghai rail link depending on the success of the fledgling Shanghai project.
The Beijing-Shanghai project would take 10 years to build and cost up to 25 billion euros (US$23 million).
Competition for the project is fierce with the French TGV high speed train and the Japanese Shinkansen "bullet train" also bidding for the deal.
(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2002)
