Permanent World-Leading Position of High-Speed Railways in China in Engineering

From the perspective of the development of high-speed railway engineering, the development of high-speed railways in China was briefly reviewed to demonstrate that China must closely combine engineering technology and engineering science, so as to take a lead in high-speed railway engineering. The rapid rising of high-speed railways in China and their paths to the world-leading position were reviewed in terms of incubation, exploration, maturation, and evolution stages. The Fuxing high-speed train is a successful example of indigenous innovation of high-speed railways in China, and it marks a milestone for high-speed railways in China from lagging behind and catching up with, to overtaking high-speed railways in other countries, which initially occupies a world-leading position. The severe challenges to the world-leading position of high-speed railways in China were analyzed, which came from the transformation to higher speed and digitalization in high-speed railways of Germany, France, and Japan and from the high-speed and super high-speed pipeline magnetic levitation systems of Japan and the United States. Proactive countermeasures to these challenges were proposed centered on the strategy of “the wheel/rail connects the world, and superconducting maglev will shape the future”. The trend of development in the high-speed railway age and post-high-speed railway age and the future development of high-speed maglev were looked forward to striving for the best status that high-speed railway in China will retain world-leading position in engineering.