The Long and Winding Railway: Domestic Politics and the Realization of China-Initiated High-Speed Railway Projects in Thailand

Abstract

The contemporary studies portray the China-initiated high-speed railway (HSR) projects, including the Pan-Asian railway networks connecting China with Southeast Asian nations, as international affairs. Instead, this article focuses on how domestic politics has affected or shaped policy processes of the HSR initiative, empirically drawing from the experience of Thailand in the period of 2010–2018. Despite the anticipation that the railway project will fulfill the interests of China and Thailand, the progress of the Sino-Thai HSR development has been slow. Hence, the article considers the question of what are the primary causes of the slowness of the China-led HSR initiative in Thailand. In particular, the article illustrates that the domestic political conditions, namely interparty conflicts, judiciary intervention, and existing bureaucratic procedures, have hindered the realization of the Sino-Thai HSR project. The paper argues that the fate of the China-Thailand cooperation in the HSR affair has reflected not only negotiation outcomes between Beijing and Bangkok but also contestation among domestic political forces in Thailand. Consequently, the article contributes to the existing literature on China’s HSR policy by bringing domestic politics into the analysis of the interstate railway projects.