Railway imperialism in China: A political biography is the first and most comprehensive book on history and politics of all major railways in China from the late Qing to the post-Mao era. It investigates the transformation of railways from a bête noire within discussions about reform to the emblematic 'engines for empire' as foreign powers used it to carve out spheres of control, and as an instrument of nation making for Chinese regimes. The book introduces new archival sources and a wide range of secondary materials. Boldly conceived, it situates the making of modern China in the context of British, Russian, German, Japanese, French, Belgium and American expansion. It traces China’s metamorphosis from a victim of railway imperialism in the Age of Empire to a railway expansionist in the twenty-first century.