……….AND INTO THE PASS Blog 2/3 on Tibet becoming a pumped hydro battery Let’s begin again. There’s a lot to unpack. What started as a straightforward proposition to enhance China’s big investments in solar power with an upriver battery dam, turns out to have many pushes and pulls: climate change, glacial peaks, a jade […]
DOWN RIVER INTO A MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPE 3/3 on Tibet becoming a pumped hydro battery We follow the Gormo/Golmud river down. Having captured both of the rivers upstream and cut through the mountains, it descends below the pass into an altogether different world of gravel and sand, relentless winds, oil and gas wells […]
FINANCIALISING TIBET 1 in a series on what’s likely in Tibet in 2022 Why is a massive data centre being built in Lhasa? Five further questions arise. Why would giants of fintech, crypto currencies and automated wealth management apps choose to locate to Lhasa? Is Lhasa is becoming a centre of data processing for corporate […]
CHINA’S NO-SHOW AT GLASGOW COP26 22 aspects of China’s approach that are relevant to Tibet: China’s Meteorological Administration speaks with glowing approval of the increasing runoff from Tibetan glaciers, and the warming of Tibet as all good, as Tibet becomes more like China. The official China Meteorological Administration says of climate change across Tibet: […]
…AND INTENSIVE URBAN CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE TRAINING Blog one in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 1/5 ON THE SCAFFOLD: CONCRETISING TIBET Recent commentary on Tibet and Xinjiang, similarities and differences, focussed on labour mobilisation. Key question: are Tibetans being pushed off their pastures and […]
Blog TWO in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 2/5 AN ARCHIPELAGO OF SECURITISED BORDER VILLAGES High on China’s construction agenda is the securitisation of over 3000 kms of border, in Shigatse and Lhoka municipalities (formerly prefectures) where Tibet abuts Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan […]
Blog three in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 3/5 CLEARING THE TIBETAN HIGHLANDS Why does China these days frequently label Tibet an “ecological security barrier highlands”? What does that mean for tibetans? Much of the Tibetan Plateau is above 4800m altitude. Most of […]
Shamefully lagging behind Blog four in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 4/5 U-Tsang, central Tibet, which China calls Tibet Autonomous Region, has long been an embarrassment to a centralized party-state whose legitimacy is based on economic growth. By almost any metric, TAR is […]
Blog five in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 5/5 WORKING FOR THE HAN MAN The most favoured construction corporations in Tibet build the highways, airports, railways, bridges, hydro dams. Wherever concrete and steel are needed, they are there. They also build cities, such […]
China prepares Tibetans for tightly disciplined bullshit jobs in distant cities. Blog one of four on realities of the labour market for displaced Tibetans If Tibetans are catapulted out of their pastures, into urban apartments and migration to big cities, how will they fare? What awaits them in the city job market? If you want […]