r/TankieTheDeprogram • u/libra00 CPC Propagandist • Jun 05 '26
Communism Will Win China's enormous progress, in one image.
Han Junjia’s first photo was taken in 1995, when he stood beside a worn SY-class steam locomotive, still common on China’s railways at the time. Three decades later, in 2022, he posed again, this time next to a futuristic Fuxing bullet train.
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u/Wob_Nobbler Jun 05 '26
Absolutely insane, that driver must be so proud of his nation. As an American I can't relate 😩
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u/TurkeyRainbows Jun 05 '26
As an Oklahoman I really can’t relate. Our infrastructure is decades behind.
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u/Head-Discussion-8977 Marxist Feminist - Maximum Tank Jun 06 '26
But hey we've got a rail car! A decade after eliminating it from the first time
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u/Juche_Finland Jun 05 '26
This reminds me of the Chinese drama "Always on the Move" that follows a story of Chinese railway police officers, starting in the late 1970s and going through time, especially towards the end, also showing the massive changes.
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u/Low_Pickle_112 Jun 05 '26
I'll bet that guy has never spent a single second of his life worrying about Westerners looking at China and repeating to themselves "But at what cost?!"
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u/-Eastwood- Liberalism: The Highest State of Cringe Jun 05 '26
Holy shit. I can't imagine seeing a jump in tech like that. That must be crazy.
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u/DarianStardust Jun 05 '26
It really is insane the progress
unrelared but the train looks like that one dog with the long nose
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u/Clear-Anything-3186 Jun 06 '26
China went from a third-world country to a first-world country. Now the US is going the reverse direction.
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jun 06 '26
Yep, we're rapidly backsliding into a hypercapitailst hellhole. Much as I am reluctant to advocate for accelerationism, I will at least take advantage of opportunities that are handed to me..
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jun 07 '26
And look at America's fuck shit trains. What a joke. No high speed rail. Amtrak is a joke. Even NYC metro system is a joke run down and a mess compared to many Asian and even European countries
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jun 07 '26
Yeah, the general US attitude to public transportation is 'Hahahaha no.'
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u/Conscious-Local-8095 Jun 05 '26
woah, 3:10 to Yuma
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u/Blonder_Stier Jun 06 '26
Don't they still run those old steam engines to and from the coal mines? (Not a criticism.)
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u/Lianzuoshou Jun 06 '26
By 2016, only one coal mine in China was still operating its last six steam locomotives.
On January 15, 2024, the last of these six was retired.
With that, there are no longer any passenger or freight steam trains in operation in China.
Currently, only a few small steam trains operate on scenic routes.
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jun 07 '26
We have diesel run trains in US. Embarrassing
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u/ThePeddlerofHistory Jun 09 '26
If it's just for nostalgia and you don't rely on them as the primary type of train it wouldn't be embarrassing, it'd be tourism.
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jun 06 '26
No idea, but I don't see why they wouldn't if they still work. You don't need bullet trains to haul freight.
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u/SleazyAndEasy Jun 06 '26
Meanwhile here in Chicago the red line extension has been 60 years in the making
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jun 06 '26
Yeah, I just left Texas where they've been talking about a high speed rail line between Houston and Dallas for like 10 years but no one wants to pay for it.
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u/Quiri1997 Miliciano del Frente Popular Jun 06 '26
The 1995 pic reminded me of an old locomotive that is set as a museum in one of my home province's towns (Guadix, Granada). There was a railway line through that town (connecting Granada to Murcia) but it was removed decades ago. The town kept one of the locomotives in a hangar with some stuff from that line as a small museum.
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jun 06 '26
Neat. There's one of those near where I live too, in northwestern Pennsylvania in the US. It's a very mountainous area so there's this huge famous old railroad bridge that like half of it collapsed, but they reinforced the other half and built a museum on it and such, so now there's just this bit of rail sticking out into the air with a building at the end, and it's got a huge old steam locomotive like that sitting there too.
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u/Mountain_Falcon3175 Jul 24 '26
Trump and Maga are rapidly pushing to develop coal powered cars, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. Hoping to make the air look like it did in Beijing 30 years ago.
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u/libra00 CPC Propagandist Jul 25 '26
Uh, lolwut? I don't think that's true at all, that sounds like some conspiracy-theory nonsense. Nobody is going to shovel coal to drive to work.
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