China’s deadly wake-up call

The recent collision of two high-speed trains in China that left at least 39 people dead is quickly becoming a symbol for many Chinese of all that’s wrong with China’s government and economy [..] If you want to understand the tensions in the Chinese system of government and development that might put a knot in straight-line growth projections for China’s future, spend a minute studying the way this event is rippling across China.

“China the innovator” took a big hit [..] The rejoinder from Japanese and German makers of high-speed trains was that it looked to them as if China hadn’t achieved higher speeds by innovating but by cutting corners on safety. That argument looks a lot stronger after the wreck, when so many pundits are comparing the zero passenger-death record in the 47-year history of Japan’s high-speed Shinkansen system to the record of China’s 4-year-old high-speed rail system.