WASHINGTON — An organization which opposes U.S. contracts for Chinese manufacturer CRRC is calling on the new Secretary of Defense to maintain the company’s place on a list of firms tied to China’s military, which can hinder its ability to land new deals.
The Rail Security Alliance, funded by a rail trade group, freight car manufacturers, and labor unions, said in a June 1 letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III that the U.S. freight rail industry is “jeopardized by CRRC’s agenda and its conquests to date” and CRRC plants and transit equipment orders mean China’s People’s Liberation Army “now has active footholds … on American soil, and it is providing passenger railcars to transit agencies across the nation.”
The Rail Security Alliance last year lobbied for sanctions against CRRC after it was included on the Department of Defense list [see “Digest: Groups lobby for major U.S. sanctions …,” Trains News Wire, July 23, 2020], and the company has been blocked from some contracts, most notable for DC Metrorail [see “Hitachi Rail lands contract …,” News Wire, Oct. 6, 2020].
The Boston Herald reports the letter comes as affiliate CRRC-MA begins work at its plant in Springfield, Mass., on an order of up to 282 subway cars for LA Metro. It quotes a company spokeswoman as saying, “We find the criticism unfair. It’s a railcar maker. There are no U.S. [passenger] railcar companies.”
Gotta wonder if the LA Metro people have been following the problems that plagued the MBTA orders for Red and Orange Line cars. If not they should be. And so should the CTA with their massive order for El cars to be or are already being built at a new
plant on Chicago’s far South Side.
I’m guessing CRRC has never heard of Siemens Mobility, Altsom, Hitachi and a few others that either manufacture the majority or complete assembly of their transit/passenger cars somewhere in the U.S..
China does not have a stellar reputation. All dealings with any nationalized and subsidized corporation must be heavily scrutinized. Prudence and wisdom needed here.