China denies copying high-speed rail technology

BEIJING - A Chinese official has denied that China’s high-speed rail technology has been plagiarised, saying it has developed it on its own.

Tian Lipu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office, told the People’s Daily in an interview published Tuesday that China can now build high-speed railway in the mountains.

The construction of the Chengdu-Guizhou high-speed railway shows that the high-speed rail technology with Chinese characteristics has come of age.

This is the world’s first high-speed railway in the mountains, Tian said at the third mayor forum on intellectual property rights and urban development in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu Monday.

It will start operation in November or December, he added.

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,” he added.

“This is legal. How is it plagiarism to assimilate others’ skills and create new things when adapting them to our own situation?”

The high-speed railway will become one of the main modes of transportation between China’s western regions and the rest of the country, Tian said.

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

In 2004, China released its plan for a 13,000-km high-speed railway network by 2010.

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.