Chinese Water Projects in Tibet: A “Continental Challenge”
Antonina Luszczykiewicz-Mendis
The management of transboundary water resources originating in Tibet has become a critical geopolitical and geo-economic issue in Asia. This issue brief examines China’s hydrological projects on the Tibetan Plateau and their implications for downstream countries. By exploring two key pillars of China’s water strategy—the construction of mega-dams and the South-North Water Diversion Project—the issue brief discusses both the domestic and international consequences of Beijing’s initiatives, such as environmental degradation, displacement of local populations, and the potential for Beijing to weaponize water as a geopolitical tool. In particular, it focuses on tensions between China and India, the involvement of Tibetan expatriate leadership, and the role of the U.S.-China rivalry.
Related Publications
-
PRC Mining in Tibet – a European Perspective
Given the enormous geostrategic and environmental importance of the Tibetan Plateau, what the People’s Republic of China (PRC) does with Tibet’s waters and its minerals does not concern the PRC […]
-
Report of the Webinar on China’s Rapacity for Mining Tibetan Resources: When Will the Greed End? (Climate Crisis in Tibet-III)
The webinar titled “China’s Rapacity for Mining Tibetan Resources: When Will the Greed End?” was the third in a webinar series on the Climate Crisis in Tibet, organized by the […]
-
Report of the Webinar: Climate Crisis in Tibet – Part I: CCP’s Tibet Takeover: Wither Global Climate Action?
This report is an outcome of the webinar titled “Climate Crisis in Tibet”, organized by the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security […]
-
COP30: Time for Action on the Himalayan Region
The Himalayas have faced unprecedented ecological, weather-related, and geotectonic disasters, exacerbated by human activity, disrupting ecosystems and local livelihoods. Despite these pressing issues, international climate discussions, particularly at COP29, largely […]
-
Cascading Effects: Will China’s New Dam Create A Himalayan Rift?
In mid-December, China marked the thirtieth anniversary of the official inauguration of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the world’s largest hydroelectric project (in terms of installed capacity). Notwithstanding the decades-long […]