China-Europe Railway Express ensures safe, unimpeded industrial, supply chains

Recently, amidst the frequent geopolitical risks, the surging demand for China-Europe Railway Express has attracted widespread attention globally.

As a flagship project and iconic brand of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe Railway Express has pioneered a new pattern of transportation between Asia and Europe. It has established a new platform for economic and trade cooperation along the routes, building a lifeline of the industrial and supply chains in a turbulent world.

A fully-loaded China-Europe Railway Express freight train departs from Luoyang, central China's Henan province for Malaszewicze, Poland, Feb. 16, 2024. [People's Daily Online/Zhang Yixi]

China-Europe Railway Express, which is fast, stable and reliable, offers strong support for the massive trade of goods between China and Europe, and is an important mode of land transportation in international logistics.

According to the latest statistics released by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., the number of China-Europe Railway Express freight trips reached 2,928 in the first two months of this year, transporting 317,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods, up 9 percent and 10 percent, respectively. As of the end of February, the freight service had connected 120 Chinese cities and 219 cities in 25 European countries.

The surging demand for railway transportation, especially the China-Europe Railway Express, has been frequently reported by international media, which highlights the role played by these trains in stabilizing and accelerating trade between China and Europe as well as countries along the routes.

China-Europe Railway Express has significantly improved the railway connectivity between Asia and Europe, as well as the development of sea-rail, road-rail, and air-rail multimodal transportation, opening up a new channel for the supply chain across the Eurasian continent.

It has also enhanced customs clearance facilitation along the routes, continuously optimizing business environment at ports and improving cross-border transportation rules and regulations.

China-Europe Railway Express has constantly enhanced connectivity between Asia and Europe, accelerating mutual benefits and win-win outcomes.

Containers are piled in a distribution center of an international railway port in Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu province, March 12, 2024. [People's Daily Online/Sun Jingxian]

New business models related to China-Europe Railway Express are emerging such as cross-border e-commerce trains, postal trains, and those connecting industrial parks and ports, bringing tremendous development opportunities to countries along the routes.

According to Xulio Rios, a China expert from Spain, China-Europe Railway Express combines the needs of both China and Europe in a new and complementary manner, and one of its significant values is the ability to unlock the potential for economic and trade cooperation among countries along the routes.

China-Europe Railway Express provides strong support for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, which promotes connectivity, mutual benefit, common development, cooperation and win-win outcomes.

At the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced eight major steps China will take to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, among which speeding up high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express and hosting the China-Europe Railway Express Cooperation Forum are important measures to build a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network.

In recent years, with the expansion of sources of goods and an increase in high-tech products, China-Europe Railway Express is transforming from a simple "corridor economy" to a "value-added economy", driving shared benefits along the routes through high-quality development.

The busy schedules of China-Europe Railway Express reflect China's determination and actions to expand high-level opening-up. The China-Europe Railway Express network covers almost the entire Eurasian continent, effectively expanding economic and trade exchanges between China and countries along the routes, and accelerating the cross-border flow of factors and resources.

A fully-loaded China-Europe Railway Express freight train runs in Ulanqab, north China Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Feb. 22, 2024. [People's Daily Online/Xia Liang]

Statistics show that China's total imports and exports with the 25 European countries reached by China-Europe Railway Express grew from 4 trillion yuan in 2013 to 7.42 trillion yuan in 2022. The two sides have witnessed continuously expanding trade volume, as well as facilitated trade exchanges.

The "two sessions" this year, the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, once again released positive signals of China expanding high-level opening-up.

China is proactively aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, steadily expanding institutional opening-up, promoting stable growth in foreign trade in terms of both quality and quantity, increasing efforts to attract foreign investment, promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and deepening multilateral, bilateral and regional economic cooperation. This will bring more opportunities for win-win cooperation to all countries.

China-Europe Railway Express, spanning across the Eurasian continent, is increasingly becoming a "road of happiness" benefiting people of all relevant countries and a "road of prosperity" contributing to the world.

China will continue to work with all relevant parties and follow the principles of planning together, building together and benefiting together, to drive the development of the China-Europe Railway Express toward higher quality, better efficiency and greater security, thus contributing to the global economy and improving the well-being of people in all countries.