Name? Xi Jinping
Westphalian identity? Chinese
Age? 67
Why is he in the news? We’ve covered many of Xi’s conflicts (physical and economic) in the past year including border skirmishes with India and a trade war with the U.S. It seems we could soon be adding ‘water war’ to that list as Xi’s state media has announced plans for building the world’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river.
Why do we care? Because Xi has done a pretty good job at branding projects such as this dam as essential to Beijing’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. In other words, Xi has made it particularly difficult to argue against the building of the dam for environmental reasons.
Why should you care? The Yarlung Tsangpo river flows down through the Himalayas and provides drinking water for an estimated 1.8 billion people in countries such as India, Bangladesh, China and Bhutan. With increasing droughts in the region as a result of global warming, any further limiting of the river could lead to immense water insecurity for millions of people so on our How much should you care scale this gets an 8/10.
Who else cares? Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister of Bhutan. While India most certainly has the ability to stand up to China, Bhutan does not. In fact, the small nation typically relies on India for trade and a sense of protection; especially since China overtook Tibet. With Modi increasingly focused on internal affairs such as the farmers’ protests and Covid19, the likelihood of India not only countering China but protecting Bhutan is minimal.
Any further comments? The river is also of strong spiritual importance to the Tibetan culture which focuses heavily on respect for nature. As a result, the US Congress recently passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act, emphasizing the country’s commitment to “cooperative agreements” on both maintaining water security and Tibet’s environment.
