Chugging Uphill for a Railway Borrowing Binge

Senior government and state-owned bank officials met October 25 to discuss extending even more credit to the indebted, cash-strapped Ministry of Railways, which hadn't paid its bills for months.

They were responding to pleas from the nation's railroad builder-operator, led by Minister Sheng Guangzu, and its contractors for at least 300 billion yuan in loans to support high-speed railroad construction projects suspended since February, as well as 140 billion yuan in "emergency" loans for workers' overdue payments.