China’s plan to use high-speed rail technology as a “golden business card” to spearhead a global tide of infrastructure exports has run into trouble, with the value of projects called off far exceeding those under way, a Financial Times investigation has found.

The total value of 18 Chinese high-speed rail projects overseas — including one completed, five under way and 12 more announced — amounts to $143bn, according to a study by the FT and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think-tank.

The ambition of China’s use of rail for economic diplomacy rivals that of the US-led Marshall Plan to revive Europe after the second world war, to which America contributed $13bn, or the equivalent of $130bn today. But the combined estimated value of projects called off in Mexico, Myanmar, Venezuela, Libya and the US is $47.5bn, the FT estimates. That is almost double the $24.9bn for projects under way in Laos, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and two in Iran, according to CSIS estimates.