TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

China’s high-speed rail—held up by many as an example of how the rest of the world is passing us by—isn’t doing so well:

Liu exploited the communist leadership’s fascination with bigness and national prestige. Among the benefits he promised was a chance to squeeze foreign companies for bullet-train technology so that China could build and export its own. What happened next suggests that he — and others — also saw the potential for graft in such a vast undertaking.

…

Word went forth that state-owned banks and local governments were to give Liu all the money, land and labor he required. When Chinese journalists found that Liu’s ministry was using cheap, low-quality concrete, creating a safety hazard, the Communist Party’s propaganda department quashed the reports, according to a January piece in the South China Morning Post.

Students and other humble citizens greeted the first fast trains with complaints about high ticket prices. They crowded aboard buses instead. According to a recent report in China Daily, the government was forced to deploy 70,000 extra buses during the Chinese New Year celebrations in February.

It is so unfortunate we don’t have China’s autocratic rule and enlightened group of leaders so they can just impose these policies on us, as Thomas Friedman wishes.