The Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project is a proposed undersea tunnel to connect Pingtan in Mainland China to Hsinchu in Taiwan as part of the G3 Beijing–Taipei Expressway. It has seen a few academic studies from the China side, but no interest from the Taiwan side, which views such proposals as political propaganda.[1] In addition to political factors, the project is generally not considered realistic due to technical and cost concerns.[2]
Proposals
First proposed in 1996,[2] the project has since been subject to a number of academic discussions, including by the China Railway Engineering Society.[3] The route between Pingtan and Hsinchu has been proposed because of its short distance and its relative geological stability (in a region frequented by earthquakes).[4] In 2005, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering stated that the project was one of five major undersea tunnel projects under consideration for the next twenty to thirty years.[5]
Reception in Taiwan
The project is not considered viable due to a lack of interest from the Taiwanese,[1] staggering costs and unsolved technical problems. At nearly 150 metres (0.093 mi) m undersea, the proposed tunnel would be 6.4 times longer than the existing Seikan Tunnel (23.3 km or 14.5 mi), nearly 4 times longer than the Channel Tunnel (37.9 km or 23.5 mi) (the current longest underwater tunnel segment),[2][5] and two-thirds longer than the proposed Bohai Strait tunnel project 90 kilometres (56 mi). In addition, Taiwan is concerned about the tunnel's potential use by China in military actions.[1] Nonetheless, in July 2013, the Chinese State Council approved plans for the project.[6]
^ abc"Taipei says thanks but no to cross-strait tunnel plan". Taipei Times. 26 April 2007. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Taiwan has snubbed China's plan to link up the two countries with a highway or a tunnel under the Taiwan Strait, urging Beijing to be "more practical" in improving cross-Strait ties. "From the academic point of view, we can discuss this. But these `cross-Strait projects' are extremely difficult, costly and time-consuming," Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) told reporters on Tuesday.{...}In recent years, China has floated the idea of extending its national highway network to Taiwan by building a dam and filling in the 120km-wide Taiwan Strait, or building a tunnel under the strait. Taipei has dismissed the ideas as political propaganda and part of China's scheme to forcibly achieve China-Taiwan unification without the approval of Taiwan's people.
