Thailand's ruling junta has approved a $23 billion (£13.6bn) transport
   project that will see two high-speed railways link up directly with
   China by 2021, in a move seen as a further consolidation of Chinese
   power in the region.
--

   The railway lines will link up directly to Kunming, in China's southern
   Yunnan province, in what analysts have termed Chinese "high-speed
   railway diplomacy".

   China is looking to build a 3,000km (1,860m) high-speed line from
   Kunming all the way down to Singapore, passing through Laos, Thailand
   and Malaysia — a project that would increase China's GDP and those of
--

   The two routes comprise nearly 1,400km in total but unlike many other
   high-speed trains, which generally run at a speed of 200 km per hour,
   will only be able to run at 160 km per hour until further investment
   would allow a higher-speed system.
--
   huge room for cooperation [between China and Thailand]," Yang Yong of
   the China Railway Corp told China Daily, adding that Chinese engineers
   had been involved in feasibility research for the high-speed lines, and
   Chinese companies were directly helping to modernise Thailand's railway
   system.

   The effect of high-speed rail is likely to change South-east Asia and
   the way it does business for good, says Geoff Wade of the College of
   Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.

   "When the people of the mainland countries soon find, through the
   convenience of [high-speed railways], that Kunming is their 'closest
   neighbour' but a few hours away, the Yunnan capital will gradually
   emerge as the hub of the Greater Mekong Region and will eventually