Times of India: Response from Chinese official

The Times of India has published an article in response to the recent article by the Guardian about hydropower projects in Tibet. The Guardian's article is based on my last blog post. The Times of India has interviewed a Chinese official, Ma Jiali, with the goverment-run Institute of Contemporary International Relations to respond to a claim (which I also made) that China is likely to build a massive 38 gigawatt hydropower project at the Great Bend of Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river.



It is a privilege to have one's work discussed in major newspapers like the Guardian, Times of India and the Hindustan Times! Thanks to the reporters who did the stories to bring much needed attention to this important matter.

I wanted to write directly to Times of India with a response to Mr. Ma Jiali's comments but surprisingly I couldn't find a "Contact" link/info on their website! So here is a blog post instead.

Mr. Jiali's response: "There are some people in China including hydrological engineers and retired military officers pushing the government to build a major water project on the Brahmaputra in Tibet. But the Chinese government has no such plans. [...] Some people including retired military officers have been advocating such a project for a long time. But I can tell you there is no such plans in the government."

Yes, we knew that. However, it must be clarified that there are two components to the "major water project" discussed here: one is hydro-power project and the other is a connected water diversion project to China. My claim is that the hydropower project is likely to be built but the water diversion project is not very likely. Read my last blog post for more details.

Mr. Jiali continues: "All that the government wants to do is establish small hydro-electricity projects in a way that there is no environmental damage. It will be bad for China as well because such a project can cause serious damage to environment in the sensitive mountain areas. Also, where is the market for generating so much electricity in Tibet?" And Times of India adds, "A major project would not be economically viable."

Now this is not true and is very misleading. The Tibetan Plateau blog has identified at least 16 hydro-electricity projects on the Yarlung Tsangpo and its tributaries that can generate more power than the largest hydropower project currently operating in Tibet Autonomous Region, the 100 MWZhikong project near Meldro Gungkar (???????????????).

Certainly there is no domestic demand for so much energy, except to power government's extensive plans to develop the region and to extract gold, copper and other minerals. The greatest demand for energy actually comes from Chinese cities. A senior researcher like Mr. Jiali cannot be ignorant of China's "West to East Power Transmission Project." Here is the State Grid map again, which shows Metog (Motuo) hydropower project connected to ultra-high voltage power transmission lines of China.