China's high-speed rail better than Shinkansen Updated: 2011-07-07 22:28 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - A spokesman of the Ministry of Railways (MOR) said Thursday that China's high-speed rail technologies are much better than those used by Japan's Shinkansen Line.

The remarks by the MOR spokesman, Wang Yongping, came after Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. threatened to take action if China files for patents on high-speed trains made using Japanese technologies.

"The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and Japan's Shinkansen line cannot be mentioned in the same breath, as many of the technological indicators used by China's high-speed railways are far better than those used in Japan's Shinkansen," Wang said, rejecting the Japanese accusation of pirating.

"We Chinese will not claim technologies owned by others as our own. And we will never give up our rights to file patent applications for innovations developed through our efforts and wisdom because of others' irresponsible remarks," he said.

The China-developed CRH380A series trains, running on the 1,318-km Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, are different from the CRH2 trains, which were jointly manufactured by China and Japan based on the imported technologies from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, according to the MOR.

Many of the technological indicators of the CRH380A trains are better, with their power raised to 9,600 kw from the CRH2 trains' 4,800 kw, speed increased to 380 kmph from 200-250 kmph and derailment coefficient lowered to 0.13 from CRH2 trains' 0.73.

Wang said the intellectual property rights of China's high-speed railways are undoubtedly mastered by China itself.

The key technology regarding trains lies in the relationship between the wheels and the rail, which is decided by the bogie, or the driving wheel technology of railroad transportation, he noted.

The bogie technology used in China's high-speed railways differs from those in other countries and is now under China's national patent protection, he said.

According to the MOR, more than 1,900 items of technologies used in China's high-speed railway have been granted patents while the patent applications of 481 other technologies are still under review.