The T-Flight is a maglev train that hit a record-breaking speed of 387 mph on a short test track — but engineers want to double that rate so the train can carry passengers at speeds faster than if they were traveling by plane.
It mostly seems like a flex to me, if they can build this then it shows how advanced technologically China has become. This is the tech that US hyped up, but was never actually able to make it work. China putting this into practice would be a clear sign that China outpaced US technologically.
I think this would make sense on certain routes, like Beijing-Shanghai, where demand is so consistently high that someone will pay a premium for getting there quicker. Probably not practical for all current HSR routes.
I think these kinds of projects are really important to have because they're motivating. They show that real technological progress is being made and create optimism for the future. On a practical level, there's always a lot of new tech that falls out of this sort of stuff that's generally useful. For example, a lot of tech that was developed during the Apollo program ended up being used lots of different ways to improve lives of the people.
Building more technology that operates in a vaccum and use it often will create a practical space where people will discover interesting perspectives that are useful for space travel.