Context: China has begun work on a strategically significant railway line - its second major rail link to Tibet - that will link Sichuan province with Nyingchi, which lies near the border with India’s Arunachal Pradesh.

• Underlining the special importance that the Chinese government has placed on the project, President Xi Jinping officially “gave the instruction” to being work on the project.
• He called it “a major step in safeguarding national unity and a significant move in promoting economic and social development of the western region.”

• Like the Qinghai-Tibet railway line, which in 2006 connected Lhasa to the hinterland, this will be the second such route linking the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to the hinterland.
• China claims that the railway will help "transport advanced equipment and technologies from the rest of China to Tibet and bring local products out”.
• If a scenario of a crisis happens at the border, the railway can act as a 'fast track' for the delivery of strategic materials.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/china-begins-work-on-railway-up-to-arunachal-border/article33087125.ece?homepage=true

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