Chinese High Speed Rail Builder Doubts U.S. Partner's Sincerity

(Beijing) – The Chinese group hired to build the first U.S. high-speed rail link this week questioned its local partner's reasons for suddenly cancelling the deal, saying localized manufacturing of rail cars should not be a condition for the project.

Reasons behind the cancellation of plans for a Chinese consortium to build the line linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas has been steeped in confusion, with neither side clearly stating why U.S. partner XpressWest abruptly called off the deal with China Railway Corp. (CRC), builder of China's state-of-the-art high-speed rail network.