Chinese Dams Hold People to Ransom

> Chinese dams on the Mekong and Brahmaputra Rivers in particular represent threats to the water security of Bangladesh and India, along with much of continental Southeast Asia. China’s planned Yarlung Zangbo hydro-electric project on the Brahmaputra River near the Indo-Chinese border is the flagship of Beijing’s hydroelectric ambitions. Once constructed, it will be three times larger than the Three Gorges Dam, or about the size of 25 percent of the entire existing Chinese hydroelectric infrastructure. On the Mekong, China has already built 11 large dams, and is constructing or planning at least eight more.

> Across its hydro-portfolio, China plans to divert up to 200.6 billion cubic meters of water per year from the Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow and Yangtze river basins. This scheme diverts as much water as about five Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dams. Were it not diverted, much of this water would flow out of China and into Southeast Asia and India.

I wonder why India would tolerate anyone damming upstream rivers. What’s to stop them from just sending a missile in and destroying those facilities? I don’t think desalination is a sustainable alternative. There’s the question of what you do with all that salt.

But also, why has the world moved on from the issue of freeing Tibet? Is it just that they are too small a population to advocate for themselves, unlike say the population of Gaza (who have the global Muslim community to fight for themselves)?

strangely pejorative title for what turned out to be a reasonable argument. I guess 'China Bad' is guaranteed click through these days