High-speed railways are revolutionizing trade in Eurasia

Indeed,

The article seems a confused mishmash of various possibilities and so paints various absurd possibilities like this.

Bullet trains are slower than planes and more expensive than container ships - much of China's bullet train building has been to facilitate internal transport and as make-work infrastructure creation. China building-up overall rail infrastructure might bring more trade with various Asian nations but a number of other factors still have to come together for this. China still isn't a first world nation by any means - China's vast industrial capacity is focused on "final assembly" and so China still is dependent on other nations for things like, say, the chips that go in the iPhones it assembles. The situation doesn't resemble "a new empire flexing its muscles" or similar rot.

I agree with both, though they do seem superficially contradictory (inflammatory, but propelling something we desperately need). Would you care to elaborate?

What makes you think that a) all of the (e.g.) 131 ethnicities in Kazakhstan will welcome this and b) that the Chinese would build something like this without being prepared to defend it using military force?