Bank of China and its fellow state-controlled Chinese financial institutions are used to being the piggy banks for pet political projects, and China's spectacular railroad expansion plan certainly falls into that category.
But just because investing in railways is seen by bankers as something of a political task does not mean they are throwing their money away.
While foreign and private investors mostly regard investing in Chinese rail projects as too risky and unprofitable, the calculation is different for the country's cash-rich lenders, which regard such important state-led projects as carrying a gold-plated guarantee from the government.