An article at the China Media Project discusses the history of the now-embattled Shanghai-Beijing railway and its context in the larger issues of the Railway Ministry. it includes the translation of an article by Chen Yanwei et al from nfpeople.com.

In the translation, the authors ask:

How was it that these doubts [about how things were being handled within the ministry] could not be revealed openly while Liu Zhijun [the mastermind behind China's push for extended railways] was in his post? As a major strategic national infrastructure project whose budget surpassed that of even the Three Gorges Dam project, how was it that there was no need to put it to a vote within the National People’s Congress? Even further, why was it that information about this project, with direct concern for the national welfare and the people’s livelihood, and expending massive resources drawn from taxpayer monies, could not be made public during the decision-making process and we subjected to public discussion?

To answer this question, the authors give us a particularly in-depth and detailed account of how the Shanghai-Beijing railway project developed, who opposed it, and the politics that were embroiled within and without of the Railway...More >>