ELECTRIFYING THE WORLD FACTORY FROM TIBET #6 in a series of 8 blogposts on China’s latest plans for Tibetan rivers While big reservoirs to capture and divert waters of Tibet to northern China are new, official plans to dam Tibetan rivers for hydropower have been known for many years. Maps of the planned cascades of […]
IS UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE PROTECTING THE GYALMO NGUL CHU/NU/SALWEEN FROM DAMMING? #7 in a series of 8 blogs on China’s latest plans for Tibetan rivers After the Gyalmo Ngulchu/Nu/Salween escapes the massive Songta dam and leaves Tibet Autonomous Region, it enters Gongshan county of Yunnan, formally assigned to the Dulong (or Drung) and Nu […]
YET MORE WATER DIVERSION PLANS TO CAPTURE TIBETAN RIVERS #8 in a series of blogs on China’s latest plans for Tibetan rivers This series of blogs began with China’s announcement, in its list of top priorities for the 13th Five-Year Plan for 2016 through 2020, of “big reservoirs in Tibet”. This last blog in the […]
CHINA’S EXPLOITATION OF TIBET’S MINERAL RESOURCES Radio Free Asia is broadcasting in Tibetan a series of talks on China’s exploitation of the mineral wealth of the Tibetan Plateau. Below is the English text on which the Tibetan broadcasts are based, written by Warren Smith, as a condensation of the 2013 book Spoiling Tibet: China and […]
FORGING THE CHAGLAM IRON PATH ACROSS EASTERN TIBET First of two blogs In 2006, when the single track rail line across the permafrost of northern Tibet to Lhasa began operation, China congratulated itself, long and loud, for its engineering accomplishment. The sky train across the roof of the world was a world first, the highest […]
a case study in the meanings of dependence #2 of 2 blogs ENGINEERING PRECIPITOUS KHAM From Chengdu and the Sichuan basin the new railway climbs to the Tibetan Plateau from Chaksam (in Chinese Luding), at the crossing of the Dadu River at the foot of the high plateau. Chaksam in Tibetan means iron bridge, after […]
WHY NATIONAL PARKS IN TIBET? #1 of 2 blogposts “China is considering establishing a national park in the Sanjiangyuan (Sources of Three Rivers) Area to protect the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers. A meeting of the Central Leading Group for Reform at the end of 2015 decided to upgrade the Sanjiangyuan […]
#2 of 2 blogposts GROWING MORE GRASS IN TIBET: INTEGRAL TO CHINA’S GLOBAL CLIMATE DIPLOMACY Western China, especially the Tibetan Plateau , has become China’s primary contribution to the global effort to mitigate or at least adapt to inevitable climate change, until China’s promises of actual emissions reductions become effective. Officially, that is to happen […]
DEPOPULATING THE TIBETAN PLATEAU IN THE NAME OF ENDING POVERTY As China’s parliament officially endorses the latest Five-Year Plan, announcements are made, confirming the determination of central planners to do all that is possible to fully eliminate poverty and backwardness, even in remote Tibetan counties. On the same day, in early March 2016, came two […]
30 years ago: Panchen Rinpoche comes to Australia #1 of 2 blogs When we first heard, improbably, that the Panchen Lama was coming to Australia, we didn’t really know what to do. It was 30 years ago, early 1986, and we were a small group, calling ourselves the Tibet Information Service (TIS), based largely in just […]