Global Courant 2023-05-16 10:23:16
China claims to be a unique benevolent international player – a great power that, unlike other great powers past and present, does not practice “power politics” (self-interest bullying of smaller states) and does not “selfish” or martial.
The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). styles themselves as the custodian of principles which, if implemented, would banish international relations from conflict and injustice.
The smaller neighbors in the south of China in particular fear domination by a strong China. To address their concerns, Beijing proclaims that it “opposes and supports the strong bullying the weak”building a world of shared prosperity and promoting the common development of all countries through the development of each country.”
The issue of freshwater resource management represents a rigorous practical test of these sweet-sounding VRC assurances. Three major Southeast Asian rivers – the Mekong, the Salween and the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) – have their source on the PRC-controlled Tibetan Plateau.
Even with this geographic advantage, China has insufficient water. The Chinese make up 20% of the world’s population, but their country contains only 6 or 7% of the world’s fresh water supply. The good neighborliness promised by Beijing’s official diplomatic rhetoric clashes with the permanent scarcity of a vital resource.
Not surprisingly, the latter wins out in actual PRC policy practice. But while Beijing staunchly serves its own interests, it also uses well-known methods to limit the damage to the PRC’s desired international image.
Among the ceremonial public statements, the true Chinese faith is that China owns the Lancang and Chinese people have the right to take or use the water as they please. They do not see it as a regional resource to be shared fairly with their neighbours.
Chinese official positionreiterated by PRC officials such as Ke Yousheng, China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, is that “we must also respect the legitimate rights and interests of the riparian countries in the rational development and use of water resources, and take care of each other’s interests and concerns.”
The reality is that Beijing prioritizes promoting Beijing’s interests, with little “respect” for the interests and concerns of neighbors downstream.
Before arriving in Southeast Asia as the Mekong, the river flows through PRC territory as the Lancang. China operates 11 hydropower dams along the Lancang, with another 95 dams on tributaries that flow into the river. China’s dams are damaging the livelihoods of millions of people in downstream Southeast Asian countries in two ways.
First, the dams remove sediment, which contains nutrients that help plants grow, from the water flowing through them. As a result, rice fields that use Mekong water for irrigation become less productive.
Second, by impounding or releasing large amounts of water, the dams can cause or exacerbate droughts or floods downstream. In 2019, Chinese dams held back such a massive amount of water that downstream countries suffered severe drought, while the Lancang section of the river experienced unusually high water levels.
The Thai side of the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle of Chiang Rai Province, with Myanmar in the background. Photo: AFP/Lillian Suwanrumpha
Conversely, China’s dam managers sometimes open flood gates without warning during dry seasons, raising river levels downstream by several meters overnight and causing massive damaging flooding. China is also exacerbating these negative effects by building dams in the downstream countries that will supply China with electricity.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor at Chulalongkorn University, argued in 2021 that Chinese officials are adjusting water flow to the Mekong as a diplomatic tactic, such as releasing more water as a gift for an important meeting between Chinese and Southeast Asian officials. “It is very clear that the Chinese are using the dams as political leverage,” he said said.
Recalling its involvement with ASEAN to advance Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, Beijing is using its influence over a regional organization to contain the political problem of Chinese dams disrupting the Mekong.
In 1995, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos signed an agreement on the cooperation and sustainable development of the Mekong River and established the Mekong River Commission (MRC). China refused to participate, thus avoiding the obligations of the agreement.
Since then, the MRC has criticized China’s dam construction and demanded more information about the operations of dams in China that affect the flow of the river. Beijing responded by establishing an alternative organization in 2016, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Forum.
As Hoang Thi Ha, an analyst at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, notes“The LMC is a good example of China-centric multilateralism, where China sets the rules and frameworks.”
For example, the LMC sponsors research projects that highlight the negative impacts of climate change but not the problems caused by dams, allowing Beijing to deflect criticism of its own behavior.
The other important aspect of harm reduction in the People’s Republic of China is creating alternative narratives that oppose allegations that the People’s Republic of China has acted dishonorably. The issue of the Lancang dams has given rise to several examples.
Beijing offers up the typical colonialist argument that increased influence and economic penetration lead to blessings rather than exploitation of the region: “China vigorously promotes Chinese-style modernization, which will bring new benefits to the development of the countries along the Mekong River.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, China was left out criticism due to his reluctance to share important data, presumably out of fear that the PRC government would look bad. Beijing responded by insist that China has been extremely transparent.
Similarly, in response to complaints that China is not publishing information about Lancang River water storage and release by Chinese dams (which the Chinese government considers a national security secret), government officials have responded that China “provides free hydrological data from the Lancang River during floods.” river has provided”. season to MRC for 15 consecutive years (since 2002).
That data was wholly inadequate; it contained only rain and water level information from two Chinese-run hydrological stations, and only for part of the year. China agreed to only release additional information from 2020 under outside pressure.
The construction of a hydropower dam by state-owned SinoHydro is one of many projects along China’s Lancang River. Photo: Twitter
PRC media opportunistic called it “an important step by China that fully demonstrates the country’s goodwill and sincerity as a responsible upstream neighbor.” External analysts continue to do so ask the accuracy and timeliness of the data provided by the government of the PRC.
The “major step” of releasing additional data came as a result of an April 2020 report in which a US-based environmental watchdog organization used satellite data to expose the extent of downstream damage caused by the Chinese dams.
The PRC government responded to this embarrassing revelation with a three-person alternative narrative.
The first point of this story was that the study vilifying Chinese drafts was scientifically flawed. Second, PRC commentators argued that Chinese dams actually help downstream countries by equalizing the flow of water. Specifically, these commentators said the dams made the 2018-2019 drought less severe for Southeast Asia.
Finally, Chinese media and officials attributed the criticism of the dams to a US anti-China agenda. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China called the 2020 report is a “malicious move to drive a wedge between” China and its neighbors.
Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Zhaohui claimed that “Some countries outside the region have repeatedly used the issue of water resources in the Mekong for political purposes to spread rumors and create problems, alienating all parties and undermining sub-regional cooperation.”
This claim is in line with the PRC’s strategic communication on the South China Sea dispute. In that case, Beijing argues that there would be no disharmony between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors if the United States did not.causing trouble.”
Beijing might have it both ways with the Chinese domestic public, convincing them that their government can provide water and electricity while being a “good neighbor.”
But to China’s real neighbors, this is becoming increasingly implausible, as is the idea of PRC exceptionalism.
Danny Roy ([email protected]) is a senior fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu, specializing in strategic and international security issues in the Asia-Pacific region.
This article was originally published by Pacific Forum. Global Courant republishes it with permission.
PacNet comments and responses represent the views of the respective authors. Alternative points of view are always welcome and encouraged.
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