China’s already huge infrastructure programme has entered a brand new section as development paintings begins at the Motuo hydropower mission.
The dam will consist of 5 cascade hydropower stations organized from upstream to downstream and, as soon as finished, would be the international’s greatest supply of hydroelectric energy. It is going to be 4 instances higher than China’s earlier signature hydropower mission, the 3 Gorges Dam, which spans the Yangtse river in central China.
The Chinese language premier, Li Qiang, has described the proposed mega dam because the “project of the century”. In different tactics, Li’s description is apt. The huge scale of the mission is a mirrored image of China’s geopolitical standing and ambitions.
In all probability probably the most arguable facet of the dam is its location. The website is at the decrease reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river at the jap rim of the Tibetan plateau. This is attached to the Brahmaputra river which flows into the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh in addition to Bangladesh. It’s crucial supply of water for Bangladesh and India.
Each countries have voiced considerations over the dam, in particular since it could actually probably impact their water provides. The stress with India over the dam is compounded by way of the truth that Arunachal Pradesh has been a point of interest of Sino-Indian tensions. China claims the area, which it refers to as Zangnan, announcing it is a part of what it calls South Tibet.
On the similar time, the dam items Beijing with a probably ambitious geopolitical software in its dealings with the Indian govt. The positioning of the dam signifies that it’s conceivable for Beijing to limit India’s water provide.
This possible to keep an eye on downstream water provide to every other nation has been demonstrated by way of the results that previous dam tasks within the area have had at the countries of the Mekong river delta in 2019. In consequence, this offers Beijing an important level of leverage over its neighbours.
One nation limiting water provide to place power on every other is under no circumstances exceptional. In reality in April 2025, following an apprehension assault by way of Pakistan-based The Resistance Entrance in Kashmir, which killed 26 folks (basically vacationers), India suspended the Indus waters treaty, limiting water provides to Pakistani farmers within the area. So the potential of China’s dam to disrupt water flows will additional compound the already irritating geopolitics of southern Asia.
Concrete titans
The Motuo mega dam is an commercial of China’s prowess relating to large-scale infrastructure tasks. China’s experience with large infrastructure tasks is a huge a part of trendy Chinese language international relations via its large belt and street initiative.
This comes to joint ventures with many growing countries to construct large-scale infrastructure, akin to ports, rail methods and the like. It has brought about a lot consternation in Washington and Brussels, which view those tasks as a much wider effort to construct Chinese language affect at their expense.
The of entirety of the dam will will carry Beijing vital symbolic capital as an illustration of China’s energy and prosperity – an integral characteristic of the picture of China that Beijing could be very prepared to advertise. It can be noticed as a manifestation of each China’s aspiration and its longstanding fears.
Harnessing the rivers
The Motuo hydropower mission additionally represents the newest bankruptcy of China’s lengthy struggle for keep an eye on of its rivers, a key tale within the building of Chinese language civilisation.
Rivers such because the Yangtze had been on the center of the prosperity of a number of Chinese language dynasties (the Yangtse remains to be a significant financial motive force in trendy China) and has devastated others. The huge Yangtse flood of 1441 threatened the stableness of the Ming dynasty, whilst an estimated 2 million folks died when the river flooded in 1931.
France 24 document at the development of the mega dam mission.
Such struggles had been embodied in Chinese language mythology within the type of the Gun-Yu delusion. This tells the tale of the best way floods displaced the inhabitants of historical China, most certainly in keeping with a real flooding at Jishi Gorge at the Yellow River in what’s now Qinghai province in 1920BC.
This has resulted in the typical motif of rivers wanting human keep an eye on to hamper herbal crisis, a theme found in a lot classical Chinese language tradition and poetry.
The pursuit of controlling China’s rivers has additionally been some of the number one influences at the formation of the Chinese language state, as characterized by way of the concept that of zhishui 治水 (controlling the rivers). Efforts to keep an eye on the Yangtze have formed the centralised machine of governance that has characterized China all the way through its historical past. On this sense, the Motuo hydropower mission represents the newest bankruptcy in China’s quest to harness the ability of its rivers.
This sort of quest stays crucial for China and its significance has been additional underlined by way of the demanding situations of local weather alternate, which has noticed herbal assets akin to water changing into increasingly more restricted. The Ganges river has already been recognized as some of the international’s water shortage hotspots.
In addition to maintaining China’s inhabitants, the hydropower equipped by way of the dam is every other a part of China’s wider push in opposition to self-sufficiency. It’s estimated that the dam may just generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy once a year – about the similar about produced by way of the entire UK. Whilst this will likely meet the desires of the native inhabitants, it additionally additional entrenches China’s talent to supply affordable electrical energy – one thing that has enabled China to turn out to be and stay a producing superpower.
Development has most effective simply begun, however Motuo hydropower mission has already turn out to be a microcosm of China’s wider push in opposition to building. It’s additionally a gamechanger within the geopolitics of Asia, giving China the prospective to exert larger keep an eye on in shaping the area’s water provides. This in flip will give it larger energy to form the geopolitics of the area.
On the similar time, it’s also the newest bankruptcy of China’s longstanding quest to harness its waterways, which now has regional implications past anything else China’s earlier dynasties may just believe.
