Investors Business Daily reports-

China’s technology of the future has become a boondoggle of the present, piling up debt and resulting in the arrest of the minister of railways. Maybe it’s that last part we should be copying. It was supposed to be the modern equivalent of the Great Wall, a web of high-speed rail lines whipping travelers and commuters at speeds of over 200 miles an hour. It was to be a model we were told we needed to emulate to stay technologically competitive.

The endeavor was part of China’s stimulus package in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. It would create jobs and stimulate economic growth. President Obama was so impressed he included $8 billion in his 1,000-page stimulus bill to jump-start an American counterpart.

Our silver-tongued vice president, Joe Biden, recently touted the president’s new $53 billion high-speed rail package with the admonition: “If we don’t seize this future, how will America ever have the opportunity to lead the world in the 21st century?” Well, we could return to the moon or go to Mars, but we’ll have to settle for a fast train from St. Louis to Chicago.

The socialist-progressive Center for American Progress, always eager to make the trains run on time, trumpeted: “Today, it is China that is leading the world in a key next-generation transportation technology: high-speed rail. … China already boasts a rail network that, including both standard and high-speed rail, is more than 53,000 miles long.”

Today the reality is somewhat different. In February, Liu Zhijun, minister of railways in the People’s Republic of China, was arrested after investigations into cost overruns and poor performance of the ministry’s showcase bullet trains, with a dash of corruption thrown in.

The modern marvel he oversaw has caused his ministry to run up some $276 billion in debt, roughly five times the amount that bankrupted General Motors. The money was mostly borrowed, ironically from the same Chinese banks that are financing our debt. And the trains aren’t running safely or on time.

On April 13, the government announced train speeds would be reduced from a maximum 216 miles per hour to 186 as a result of concerns about safety, energy efficiency and affordability.

Of course, cost overruns and kickbacks could never happen here, and we all know how safe, efficient and profitable Amtrak has been. Build it and they will ride, we are told. Except that it hasn’t quite worked out that way in China.