CRISIS Situation

yunnan's environmental crisis

In one of China’s monsoon provinces, soaked by an annual average rainfall of up to 2,300 millimetres, has spent the last four years suffering from an intense drought which has pushed its economy to breaking point. In spite of this, Yunnan Province is trying to initiate one of the most expansive hydroelectric projects in the world. Yunnan has been planning to build a cascade of 25 dams along the Jinsha River, which could generate four times as much electricity as the entire Three Gorges Dam project.

Cross-Border Controversy in South West China

December 5, 2014

Yunnan’s geography may be easily suited to developing hydropower plants, but its political economy is struggling domestically and internationally with the endeavour.

In the absence of strong political ties to Beijing, Yunnan is beginning to look westward to support its struggling industries. Being geographically closer to Calcutta than to Beijing, Yunnan seeks to act as a “gateway” to South East Asia.

The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor, aiming to connect China to India by land and thereby stimulate trade, recently gained the attention of the National Government. Premier Li Keqiang discussed the Corridor, which Yunnan has been pushing since 1999, during his visit to New Delhi in 2013, and it was re-emphasised in a joint communiqué that concluded President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to India later in Septmber 2014.

China also improved diplomatic relations with Burma by signing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Action Plan in 2013, though the results of this are debatably meagre.

Despite diplomatic efforts to reinforce ties with South East Asia through Yunnan, the province’s hydroelectricity projects continue to tarnish the relationship between China and it’s neighbours.

China shares eighteen rivers with its neighbours, some of which flow into disputed waters. An example is the Brahmaputra River, on which a series of five dams are planned. One of the new dams approved for the Brahmaputra is to be twice the size of the Three Gorges Dam and situated almost on the contested border with India.

Such an approach gives China unprecedented control over neighbouring countries dependent upon international water resources.

As well as controlling the water upstream, China does not openly share environmental or technical information concerning the Yunnan projects with neighbour countries, disrupting water security and safety throughout the region.

Last year, proposals to convert the Lancang and Nu rivers to power sources were seen to ignore the concerns of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, some of the key countries targeted by Yunnan in their creation of a “gateway” to South East Asia.

Despite China's ongoing attempts to quiet the discomfort amidsts its territorial neighbours, for how long will economic advantages counterbalance concerns over health, safety and environment? Are South East Asian countries in such dire straits economically, that they are forced to sacrifice the safety and sovereignty of their citizens in order to placate the waiting dragon?

China is acting as “hydro-hegemon” in regard to its shared rivers as it is damming without the support and partnership of its neighbours, and at times in outright opposition to their wishes.

China Folio

Having invested heavily in hydroelectric power stations since 1993, Yunnan planned to supplement its lack of a solid production advantage by providing energy resources to neighbouring provinces in South China. In Yunnan, 80% of goods sold are manufactured elsewhere, resulting in a weak real economy dependent upon agriculture, raw materials and extraction. The province’s surge of hydroelectric fervour, however, damages the fragile ecosystem upon which the agricultural industry depends. Moreover, the recent droughts plaguing the region have yet further increased the pressure.

Even without considering the local economy, Yunnan’s hydroelectric push has caused considerable controversy within domestic politics. While Yunnan’s leaders seek to sell the electricity produced on a grid-to-grid provincial basis, thus reaping greater tax benefits, the National Government is pushing the province to supply its regional neighbours, even as far as Guangdong.

Alongside this domestic contention, environmental campaigners such as Yang Yong, Chief Scientist at the Hengduan Mountains Research Institute and committee expert at the China Foundation for Desertification Control, are battling against the over-exploitation of Yunnan’s waterways.