WHAT'S CHINESE FOR "MOVEMENT AUTHORIZATION IDENTIFICATION NUMBER?"

In U.S. railroading, the MAIN train was a military movement, perhaps troops, perhaps guns and tanks, perhaps key supplies, moving from arsenal to port or recruiting depot to training camp.

These days, the troops generally fly or ride the bus, although the heavy machinery moves by rail, sometimes on dedicated trains.

China, though, is a continental power with rivals at its borders.  Thus, it's working on expediting the movement of troops.

The Lanzhou brigade’s trip — which included its equipment — was the first time a military unit had ever traveled along the high-speed rail line to Xinjiang. The western province is home to an insurgency fought between the state and ethnic Uyghur Muslim militants.

The state-owned Chinese military newspaper Jiefangjun Bao anesthetically described the exercise as part of “the military’s power projection and combat readiness force movement on to the ‘contemporary train’ of civil-military integration.”

This is an oblique reference to China using civilian infrastructure for military purposes. China has the largest high-speed rail network in the world — defined as rail lines with trains traveling above 120 miles per hour.

Did I mention quelling internal rebellions? Grenville Dodge and Herman Haupt would understand.