Official: Charges that China copied high-speed rail tech unfounded

The accusation that China's high-speed railway technology is plagiarized is totally unrealistic because China's high-speed rail technology has achieved integrated innovation and formed its own characteristics on the basis of its own reality, an official said on Monday.

Tian Lipu, director of State Intellectual Property Office of China, told this to reporters during the third mayor forum on intellectual property rights and urban development held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province on Monday.

Now only China can build high-speed railway in the mountains.

The construction of Chengdu-Guizhou high-speed railway, the world's first high-speed railway in the mountains, will be started at the end of November or early December, which means high-speed rail technology with Chinese characteristics has come of age.

When asked about how to look at the references and innovation of technology, Tian said that world innovation is divided into two parts, the innovation created by others and the innovation produced based on one's own practices.

"The developed countries can do like this, why not China?" Tian said. "We bought technology from Germany, Japan and France and we paid patent fees in accordance with international rules. This is legal. How is it plagiarism to assimilate others' skills and create new things when adapting them to our own situation?"

According to China's plan, high-speed railways will become one of the main channels linking western regions and the rest of China, Tian said. These regions account for two thirds of China's land area and the landform are mainly mountains, hills and plateaus.

"Will foreigners build their high-speed railways in mountains? Only China's technology can do this," Tian said.

Early in 2004, when China released its plan for a 13,000-kilometer high-speed railway network, world corporations from Canada, Germany, Japan and France all aimed to take China's huge market.

From vehicle purchase to designing its own software and getting more than 900 patents, China's high-speed railway has gradually shifted to independent research and development. By 2010, China will completely fulfill the dream of having 13,000 kilometers of high-speed railway.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online