A superb short book. A must read for anyone interested in learning more about China's development and its plans for the region. Using China's long-time high-speed rail dreams, the author takes us on a journey through the region and brilliantly illustrates how the countries are adapting to a booming China with ever-greater ambitions.

Excellent. Definitely recommended.

I came across this book when I was browsing through NetGalley awhile back ago and when I found out it was about China’s One Belt One Road initiative, I was instantly curious. Being from Hong Kong, l try to keep a close pulse on current events unfolding in the region and over the past year, one of the most talked about subjects in the city (aside from the raging debates over education, housing, sovereignty, etc.) has been China’s super-ambitious One Belt One Road project and what its impact would be on not just China and HK, but also Southeast Asia as a whole. Prior to reading this book, I had only a very basic concept of what One Belt One Road was – essentially a high-speed railway from China to various countries in Southeast Asia. Even though I had read many of the news reports about the project, the information was too scattered, which made it difficult for me to wrap my mind around the scope and magnitude of the project. It wasn’t until I read this book that I was truly able to understand what the One Belt One Road project entailed and more importantly, the implications the project has as it relates to China’s ambitions and expansion plans in Asia (and, to some extent, the rest of the world).

This book was amazingly well-written in a way that was engaging and easy to understand. I appreciate the amount of detail that the author Will Doig used in the book, providing for us not just a simple definition of what One Belt One Road is, but also delves into its background and inception from historical, cultural, financial, political perspectives and beyond. One of the things I liked most about this book is that it didn’t just look at the project from China’s perspective, but also explored the role of some of the “key players” in the project – specifically Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. This is a perspective that is rarely brought up in the reports from mainstream media so for me, learning about the relationship these countries have with the project as well as its impact on them was a real eye-opener. I learned a lot from reading this book and it helped me put a lot of the articles I had read previously into better perspective. I also appreciate that the author kept the narrative objective, with plenty of examples and factual information, yet relayed in a way that didn’t feel like I was simply reading a news report – definitely no easy feat considering the various perspectives explored here.

For those who are interested in understanding more about China affairs and why the One Belt One Road initiative – however ambitious and superfluous of a project it might seem on the surface – is so important to China and its long-range expansion goals, this book is the perfect read. It is very short (a little shy of 100 pages) yet is tremendously informative and written in a way that makes the otherwise drab subject matter interesting. I found this to be a fascinating read that is definitely recommended!

Received ARC from Columbia Global Reports via NetGalley

HIGH-SPEED EMPIRE by Will Doig focuses on a fairly narrow idea – high speed transport development by China – with surprisingly broad impact. Doig is a journalist whose work has appeared on NPR, Salon and The Daily Beast in addition to Next City and George Soros's Open Society Foundations. Doig's expertise in the areas of urban development, transportation, and infrastructure is readily apparent in his analysis of China's ambitious projects throughout Southeast Asia. In talking about development in Laos for instance, Doig noted "what many in Southeast Asia today both yearn for and fear: the heavy hand of China reaching deep into their countries, ... but also a rising level of Chinese visibility that stirs up concerns about sovereignty and identity." This relatively short book is part of the Columbia Global Reports series and even though it is a fast read, it is filled with interesting and thought-provoking statistics. For example, 10 of the world's top 20 container posts are in China; its expressway system is longer than the US Interstate Highway System and plans are underway for building forty new airports between 2015 and 2020. This is a country on the move, not only within its own borders, but also within the region as evidenced by the increasing value of trade and projects like the One Belt One Road initiative. HIGH-SPEED EMPIRE has received praise from scholars and was named one of 800-CEO-READ's Must-Read Business Books for May 2018. If you are interested in a related text exploring the geographical potential of this area, look for Where China Meets India which was written a few years ago by Thant Myint-U, noted historian and grandson of U Thant.