Why China plans to run trains from Kunming all the way to Singapore

During his visit to Malaysia last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China was willing to study a plan to connect its railway projects in the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Laos, and Thailand for "enhancing regional connectivity". Li attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Malaysia's East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) Gombak Integrated Terminal Station with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The nearly $10 billion ECRL project is sometimes linked to a China-led "pan-Asian" railway network that would connect the southern Chinese city and transportation hub of Kunming with Singapore at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula by lines running across…