Just thinking out loud.

[joetheman]

The Chinese largely built America's railroad in the past. Is there a chance for a mutual deal with them to help us build back better our railroads of the future? Why is it virtually impossible to deal over mutual interests with countries? Japan? Korea?

[Ocelot II]

1. Exploited immigrant Chinese laborers were hired for railroad work because

the railroads couldn't get enough White Americans to do the dangerous, backbreaking labor involved in blasting through rock and laying track in all kinds of weather. Many of the workers died. That's not the kind of work that's needed to improve the railroads now; to the extent it is, the workers are unionized so there won't be any place for cheap, exploited workers; and in any event I don't see how China, as a country, could or would want to be involved.

https://www.history.com/news/transcontinental-railroad-chinese-immigrants

[dalton99a]

3. +1. And Union Pacific intentionally left them out of the historic 1869 photo

[Demsrule86]

5. We have learned that some of the workers were massacred. Seriously, this OP should be deleted.

[raccoon]

10. See also "Hell's canyon massacre. "

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Canyon_massacre

34 Chinese gold miners were murdered.

3 of the perps were tried but found not guilty.

[Demsrule86]

17. Thanks...I had not heard of that...horrifying. I was reading a mystery (love them) when I

came across information about how the Chinese were forbidden to leave China Town...It was against the law in California. It is shocking how little we know about this shameful example of historical murderous bigotry. I looked into it after reading about it in the book.

And this is not the only thing I learned long after I left school... I mean I knew nothing about the fight for the vote for women...I really thought it was a peaceful process. After watching the movie Iron Jawed Angels...I read the history which had not been taught in school...it was shocking. History is white washed clearly.

[frazzled]

6. And then we banned them from entering the country

With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, after the First Transcontinental Railway was built. Kept getting renewed in various forms until well into the 20th century.

Exclusion was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which allowed 105 Chinese to enter per year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

[joetheman]

16. I'm not talking about exploiting anyone. I'm talking about trying to build back better relationships

across the board. I'm talking about building a bridge on mutual interests so that we might be in a better position to help those whom China is oppressing.

[Ocelot II]

18. We don't need China's help in improving our rail system; we need the political will to do it.

There are better ways to handle the problems we have with China.

[Demsrule86]

20. How would reminding China of our disgraceful history of persecution of the Chinese build back

better relations?

[Demsrule86]

21. And also...it is time to stop outsourcing our manufacturing and infrastructure projects. Ford

is sending thousands of jobs to Mexico by closing the Avon Ford plant in Cleveland. I would as soon spit on a Ford car as buy one.

[mtngirl47]

2. Chinese Immigrants provided a lot of labor to build

the Transcontinental Railroad which was championed by Lincoln, even though we were in the midst of the Civil War.

The Chinese did not decide up doing it, finance it or engineer it.

As for improving our rail system--it is a matter of will, money and changing how Americans think about travel. The car culture, where everyone has a car, is only about 70 years old, but is very entrenched. Suburban and rural living make it hard to change to public transportation.

I personally believe that if we build it then people will start using it.

[abqtommy]

4. Yes, the western leg of the transcontinental railway here in the U.S. did rely mainly

on Chinese labor while the eastern leg was built with primarily Irish labor. The meeting
of the two lines at Promontory Point in Utah can rightly be described as a Kumbaya
Moment. However, the Irish were relatively quickly assimilated and normalized into the
U.S. population. And the Chinese have been rewarded with a history of restricted
immigration and being made to suffer under the systemic "racism"/ethnic bigotry that
many peoples here still suffer under.

This same systemic ethnic prejudice and other factors affect the possibility that nations can work together for good. History always explains the "why" of these messes but not the
"how do we get out of this?".

[FSogol]

7. Seriously? WTF? Why would we hire China to do American infrastructure projects?

Don't you think there aren't thousands of American engineering companies that could easily do this work? Plus those Chinese laborers did the physical labor (on the west, in the east, it was the Irish). They weren't doing the engineering.

The problem is no one will appropriate the money to do anything.

x ?

[joetheman]

19. Who said anything about hiring them to DO our infrastructure?

They may well have technology we could use to our benefit. And we do have train cars, buses etc built in other countries. Why not have them made here. Or were you not aware that this was being done? Just like all those air bags being made in Japan and used in every US made auto.

[Demsrule86]

22. Actually, they have been accused of stealing our technology.

[joetheman]

24. If that is true, then what do we have to lose?

[FSogol]

25. You did:

The Chinese largely built America's railroad in the past. Is there a chance for a mutual deal with them to help us build back better our railroads of the future?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Are you under the impression the Chinese built the railroads

because they had an expertise we lacked? Uhhh, you need to know the Chinese were imported because they were a source of cheap labor. Period. The engineering and expertise in the building would have come from home grown talent.

Earlier in the 19th Century it was largely the Irish who built the Erie Canal.Perhaps other canals, I don't know. Maybe next time a canal needs to be dug we should bring in more Irish?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Perhaps. But only if we need to build a new White House.

Makes you wonder how they did that total gut job and rebuild of the WH back during Truman's administration, doesn't it?

[FSogol]

12. Thanks for those photos. I read about the renovation (the portico was practically

falling off the WH at the time), but never saw pics. Congress was really stingy about funding the repairs.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. Google White House Rebuild

and click on images. There are lots and lots.

[Martin68]

29. "Congress was really stingy about funding the repairs." Some things never change...

[joetheman]

26. You know that is not what I am proposing. Stop it!

[Hortensis]

13. It is a real wonder that America didn't collapse long ago,

isn't it, joetheman? At least it allows us to live in interesting times, muse profound thoughts to pass along to others as we stumble along our amazingly protracted...stumble.

[BannonsLiver]

15. LOL

The Chinese didn’t design and engineer the railroads. They were the slave labor that built them. Plus, there is zero appetite politically to have China come here to do a massive infrastructure project.

[Demsrule86]

23. I don't want any foreign entity doing our infrastructure projects. In fact, I want companies who

move American jobs overseas which includes the autos to pay a heavy price...tariff them or tax them. The Trump tax laws reward such companies.

[brooklynite]

27. What do the two have to do with each other?

19th Century: Uneducated Chinese Laborers
21st Century: Educated Chinese Engineers

What's the connection?

Also, the US doesn't have a engineering problems with HSR; they have a financial unwillingness to pay for it, and private land ownership that makes acquiring the ROW extremely difficult.

[LexVegas]

28. What?