Chinese State Council Announces National Expressway Network Plan
The Chinese State Council announced its plans for building a national expressway network in China which would last 30 years and cost 2 trillion yuan. The purpose of the network, according to Chinese Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian, which involves building more than 85,000 kilometers of highways, is to link all cities with populations of more than 200,000 to a national highway network, and speeding up economic development.
The network is called the "7918 network". This is because it would link seven major hubs or population centers, nine highways connecting north and south, and 18 highways running east and west. 29,000 kilometers of highway have already been completed, and 16,000 kilometers are under construction. The remaining 47,000 kilometers is yet to be constructed. When completed, all cities with populations of more than 200,000 will be able to connect to a major highway within 30 minutes in the east, in one hour in central China, and in two hours in western China.
Zhang Chunxian said that financing for the project would come from taxes, and that the state had projected sufficient income for the project without any additional taxes.
Zhang said that the need for the national highway network became apparent in the late eighties when freight transportation showed rapid growth. This trend has continued to the present day, and in order to insure a more even rate of economic development across the east and west, a network is needed.
For reporters covering the press conference, the most significant part was his announcement of connecting Taipei to the national network. The main purpose of this, he said, was for freight transportation. Fuzhou, in Fujian province, already has its own hub, and Taipei would eventually be connected to this. The details of how this would be done would be worked out after there were direct transportation links between Taiwan and mainland China.
The Taiwan straits, which separate Taiwan from mainland China, are 100 miles across, and any road link across the Taiwan straits would make it the longest cross-water road project in the world.
Because of political differences on both sides of the Taiwan straits, all major transportation is now routed through Hong Kong, South Korea or Japan.
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