HONG KONG – Having saturated its domestic market with the world’s most extensive high-speed railway network, China is aggressively looking abroad to export its infrastructure prowess. However, ambitious plans to connect Eurasia via high-speed rail are meeting stiff resistance and complex realities on the ground.

From Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe, Chinese state-owned enterprises are bidding for massive infrastructure projects. Yet, analysts warn that the "build it and they will come" model that worked domestically may not translate to foreign markets with different political and economic constraints.

"The engineering is not the problem; the economics are," explained financial analyst Zhou Min. "In many potential host nations, the population density simply doesn’t support the ridership numbers needed to make high-speed rail profitable without massive government subsidies – subsidies these countries often cannot afford."

Furthermore, geopolitical skepticism is growing. Host nations are increasingly wary of the debt burdens associated with these mega-projects, often part of the Belt and Road Initiative. The fear of "debt traps" has led several countries to renegotiate terms or cancel projects altogether.

Despite these headwinds, Beijing remains committed to its railway diplomacy, viewing it as a long-term play for economic integration and influence. Whether these steel arteries will ever fully connect the continents remains an open question, dependent as much on diplomacy as on engineering.