The official opening of the Pinglu Canal on September 16 is a milestone in modern Chinese history. More than an infrastructural feat, it signals a strategic recalibration of how China’s inland economies connect with the sea and Southeast Asia, and augurs the next phase of regional growth.
Designed for vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes, the 134.2km (83.4 mile) waterway stretches from the Xijin reservoir in Hengzhou, an emerging city in Guangxi, to the Gulf of Tonkin (known as the Beibu Gulf in China), providing southwestern inland provinces with a shorter and more cost-effective route to global markets.
Strategically, it anchors the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a rapidly growing artery that was first conceptualised under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative endorsed in 2015 by President Xi Jinping and Lee Hsien Loong, then prime minister of Singapore.
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