On track for rejuvenation

Two new high-speed trains were put into operation on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line on Monday.

The two trains are a new model called Fuxing, or Rejuvenation, to which China holds the complete intellectual property rights.

Compared with the other high-speed trains in service in the country that have been designed and built with foreign technologies to different foreign standards, the new trains use core technologies developed in China and are built to a unified Chinese standard.

The lack of high-speed trains built on a unified standard has imposed high operating and support costs on China Railway Corp, the State-owned rail operator, and hampered China's efforts to export its rail technology and products.

The launch of the new bullet trains means China's high-speed trains have now bid farewell to their follower status and embarked on a new journey as pacesetters. It also marks a substantial stride forward in China's bid to develop into a global high-tech power. The realization of self-developed technologies for the new trains, including their overall design and all key parts, such as traction, brake and control software, indicates that China has fully mastered the core high-speed train technologies and this is expected to boost the reputation and core competitiveness of its high-speed trains in the international market.

The successful operation of the new bullet trains is not an accidental development but a reward for China's sufficient institutional guarantees and heavy technological inputs. The research and development into a standard Chinese high-speed train was listed as a key national project and China Railway Corp has mobilized technological personnel from various domestic research institutes to this end since 2012.

In particular, reform measures aimed at smashing barriers in the way of technological innovation have been adopted in recent years, creating a favorable ideal institutional environment for innovation.

Thus the Fuxing bullet trains and other science and technology breakthroughs are signs that China is starting to realize its long-cherished Fuxing dream, or the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.