This is a truly incredible article that criticizes China's plans to build high speed rail to under-served parts of China by taking the angle that it won't make money, and therefore is stupid. Amazing that infrastructure projects that help rural Chinese gain access to a high speed rail network is criticized from the angle of profit-making when making a profit is never the point with infrastructure projects. The NYC subway system wasn't built to "make a profit," but that doesn't mean it was a bad idea. But China bad so somehow them building a crazy amount of high speed rail is bad.
Neoliberalism: If CAPEX for the build and OPEX in the first quarter exceeds revenue for that quarter, it's simply impossible to build.
And the elite simply can't understand how China keeps growing.
Yeah, historically the interstate highways system in America is a massive failure thated to the bankrupting of the state. Definitely not a tool that pulled vast swaths of the country out of poverty and allowed for freedom of travel.