China Going Up and Coming Down

SoCalChris writes "The BBC writes that China has just completed the world's highest railroad, climbing to 16,640 feet (5,072 meters) above sea level. The cars will be sealed to help passengers cope with the pressure changes from the altitude. The line is expected to begin carrying passengers next year." This news comes at the same time that their Chinese taikonauts return from their spaceflight after just 115 hours in orbit.

Comments

Real shame...

[katharsis83]

Yeah too bad they'll now suffer terribly with expanded access to new goods and services, educational opportunities, and contact with the outside world besides 1-2 hollywood stars visiting ever 2 years. I just hope the Chinese government doesn't do anything terrible like build more hospitals or expand access to electricity... Damn them for having spent $3 billion in local Tibetan communities on this project and creating thousands of jobs...

Real shame that the standard of living in Tibet has risen steadily from the subsistence level ever since the CCP took control, huh?

Re:The Asian Century

[Microlith]

I assume we'll also get Chinese style freedoms to go along with it, right?

Oh that's right, no freedom.

Re:Oh Really?

[lysergic.acid]

You know, you're probably right. I mean, they are communists after all. America being superior to the rest of the world in all ways, if our democratic nation's own space agency is having such a hard time safely putting man in space, how can those godless communists possibly manage to do it?

I think the Russians were lying about their space exploration feats as well--They were communists too under the Soviet government. Nothing good has ever come out of a country that is ideologically opposed to the U.S.!

Meanwhile, I know I can perfectly trust our democratic government to be completely honest, just as American mainstream media sources are always 100% accurate. I mean, c'mon it's not like CNN has army psy-ops personnel watching over their operations. And our president would never lie to us about anything.

Re:Sad to see all the sheer arrogance at /.

[oddfox]

First off, spell it right, it's the United States of America. There's a preview button, use it.

Secondly, the points you make here as well as in another post of yours comparing the wrongdoings of the American government to the wrongdoings of the Chinese government are valid but two wrongs do not make a right, and you ignore the simple logic that hey, just because one is a citizen of a specific place, doesn't necessarily mean they agree with the leaders! Far out concept, I know, but once you grasp it, you'll find a lot less people think you come off as a complete jackass who's flaming for the sake of flaming, or playing devil's advocate with no supporting statements. That is, unless you consider "FUCK YEAH!!!" a supporting statement.

Besides, the dude you replied to has the handle AlthalusUK (901826). Notice that UK there? It means he's probably not from America, especially when UK also appears on his userpage. Get a fscking clue.

And for the record, I'm an American who despises most every aspect of the government, and has for a while. Does it make sense to belittle the concern for the plight of the Tibetan people and the poor of China by saying "Well America did this...!" when nobody said anything like "Hey it was awesome when we performed genocide on the Native American population but really, China, it's just not cool when you pseudo-commies do it." Don't expect to make any logical sense to anyone but your circle-jerk buddies who don't seem to think any intervention should occur with regards to what's going on, what the government of China continues to do. Hell, I don't even care if anyone directly intervenes, the least we could do is stop having them as our #1 trading partner while at the same time seemingly begging for more caring about basic human rights (And if you would argue there are no such things, well, sucks to be you with an outlook like that I guess).

Re:way to go slashdot!

[glesga_kiss]

We have killed more Iraqi's in the last two years than China has killed in Tibet. Oh, and the previous Tibetan government weren't angels, in fact they were pretty evil. Someone should mention the words "regime change" to the Chinese PR people.

Reservations and population

[Baldrson]

First of all, the population of north Amerindians is the same as it was at the introduction of smallpox by the Spanish. They recovered their numbers because:

1. The Protestant settlers increased the carrying capacity of the land through agricultural techniques.
2. The system of reservations allows the portions of their population that would otherwise have lost their identity to retain their identity.

Sure, Tibet is an entire country but the real question is:

1. Do Tibetans have any territory set aside exclusively for them the way the US set aside reservations?
2. Is the increase in carrying capacity being shared in a way that keeps the number of Tibetans from dwindling along with their identity?