Antifake / Factcheck

16 лістапада 2022

Fake news of the week: The SB writes that Washington has turned on Lukashenka not because of repressions, but because of container shipping

In 2020, transportation by Belarusian Railways to China and back has indeed increased by more than one and a half times. This is not a geometric progression, but a serious growth

Authors:
Editors:
The “SB Belarus Today” newspaper writes that the railway from China to Europe, which also runs through Belarus, is already so active that it competes with sea transportation. This is allegedly the reason why the US has turned on Lukashenka - they want to control such an important trade route.

“The railway container transportation volume from China to Europe has been increasing in geometrical progression in recent years. The land route from the East to the West and back has steadily and inexorably become a competitor to sea transportation,” the SB wrote.

In 2020, transportation by Belarusian Railways to China and back has indeed increased by more than one and a half times. This is not a geometric progression, but a serious growth.

No separate statistics on China were published last year. But the total traffic increased by a third.

But in the global context, all the railroad transportation between China and Europe (not only the Belarusian ones) is only 4% of the total trade in this direction. That is, only 4% of goods are transported by trains.