According to Xinhua, the Pinglu Canal in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region officially opened to navigation recently, giving Guangxi and southwest China a more direct, economical and convenient waterway route into ASEAN, and shortening inland shipping distances to the sea by more than 560 kilometers. At 10:25 a.m. on September 16, the first vessel sounded its horn and set sail from the Madao lock hub in Qinzhou, Guangxi, marking the formal opening of the canal after four years of construction — another major achievement in China's infrastructure development.

The idea behind the Pinglu Canal traces back more than a century to a plan Sun Yat-sen outlined in his "Fundamentals of National Reconstruction," which is why the project is also called a "century project." For years, cargo from Guangxi and southwestern provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing had to travel east via the Pearl River system to reach the sea through Guangdong, or rely on costly long-distance road transport. ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for six consecutive years; according to China's General Administration of Customs, bilateral trade in the first half of 2026 reached 4.34 trillion yuan, up 18.2% year on year. Under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — the world's largest free trade agreement by population and economic scale — the canal's completion provides a stronger physical foundation for regional economic integration. The National Development and Reform Commission's 2019 master plan for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor covers 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities — including Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang — running through 2025 with a longer-term outlook to 2035, and the Pinglu Canal is a key link in that national strategy connecting rivers to the sea.

The Pinglu Canal runs 134.2 kilometers in total, starting at the mouth of the Pingtang River in the Xijin Reservoir area of Hengzhou, Nanning, passing through Lingshan County, joining the Qinjiang River, and flowing directly into the Beibu Gulf at Qinzhou Port — linking the Xijiang River system with an outlet to the sea. Built to Class I inland waterway standards, it can accommodate vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes, with a three-tier ship lock hub system that gradually offsets a water-level difference of more than 60 meters, and 27 new or renovated bridges. Total investment was about 72.7 billion yuan (over US$10 billion). Construction began on August 28, 2022, and completion acceptance was finished on August 28, 2026 — a full four years of building.

Previously, cargo from Guangxi and southwest China shipped east via the Pearl River system to reach the sea through Guangdong faced a much longer route, typically taking about 7 days or more, with delays of up to 20 days during congestion. After the Pinglu Canal's opening, cargo can now travel directly through the canal to Qinzhou Port on the Beibu Gulf in as little as about one day. Official estimates put the reduction in overall logistics costs at 18% to 30%, saving society roughly 5.2 billion yuan in transport costs annually. The figure of a shortened distance of more than 560 kilometers is consistent with the official announcement made at the canal's opening.

The Pinglu Canal is the first river-to-sea canal planned and built at the national level since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and one of the backbone projects of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. At the opening ceremony, Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended and spoke in Qinzhou, Guangxi. He said President Xi Jinping had attached great importance to the canal's construction and repeatedly issued key instructions calling for it to be built to high standards and high quality as a quality project, a green project and a clean project. Ding said the canal, as major infrastructure for river-rail-sea multimodal transport, would further strengthen the comprehensive transport network linking southwest China's rivers to the sea.

Trade between China and ASEAN quickly picked up after the opening. On September 16, the vessel Beigang Nanning Borun departed from the Liujing operating area of Nanning Port, passed through the Pinglu Canal into the Beibu Gulf, and arrived at Can Tho Port in Vietnam on September 23 — becoming the first foreign trade cargo ship to reach an overseas port since the canal opened, and completing the first direct river-sea international container voyage from Nanning to Can Tho. Le Quang Trung, deputy general director of Vietnam National Shipping Lines, said the canal's completion would benefit closer economic and trade ties between Vietnam and Guangxi and southwest China. Officials and businesspeople from several ASEAN countries also voiced hopes for new regional cooperation opportunities.

Zhou Yan, deputy general manager of Beibu Gulf Port International Port Group, told media that the canal is expected to add about 3.5 million tonnes of cargo throughput annually for Beibu Gulf Port in its early phase, with potential to lift the port's throughput to around 150 million tonnes in the longer term. The canal's impact is most pronounced for bulk, lower-value commodities such as aluminum, steel and ore from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, which are highly sensitive to logistics costs; lower freight rates will directly boost their export competitiveness. Analysts note that in the short term the canal will mainly reroute cargo flows from the traditional eastward route toward the Beibu Gulf, while in the medium to long term it is more likely to generate trade-creation effects — lower logistics costs spurring new export orders, new investment and industrial clustering along the canal.

The Pinglu Canal project has also drawn some controversy. Environmentalists and researchers have pointed out that construction involved excavating about 339 million cubic meters of earth and rock, causing a degree of habitat fragmentation to forests, wetlands and farmland along the route, with landscape connectivity metrics estimated to have declined by about 25%; changes to hydrology and sediment patterns from the project have also raised concerns about river ecology. Separately, some analysts have warned that, against a backdrop of strained local government finances and uncertain freight demand, the 72.7-billion-yuan investment risks becoming an underused “white elephant” project whose returns may take longer than hoped to materialize. A broader wave of similar canal projects across several Chinese provinces in recent years has likewise sparked debate over duplicated investment and rising debt burdens.

At the same time, some ASEAN businesses and trade officials have said they hope the canal will open up China's market further, while also expressing concern that it could make China-ASEAN trade patterns even more lopsided, calling for measures to ensure genuine two-way trade rather than a one-way flood of goods. Analysts generally agree that the long-term significance of the Pinglu Canal lies not only in shorter distances and lower costs, but in its role as a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, turning Guangxi into a hub linking China's southwestern hinterland with the Beibu Gulf and, in turn, ASEAN markets — new infrastructure underpinning regional economic and trade cooperation. How the canal actually performs in the coming years, including the pace of cargo-volume growth and whether environmental mitigation measures are properly implemented, remains to be seen.