Abstract
Freshwater resources do not respect political boundaries and are frequently shared among countries, making water management an issue of international concern in many places. Worryingly, the number of conflicts between riparian neighbours in international river basins has, overall, been on the rise. In the light of this situation, the role of the most powerful riparian countries, the so-called hydro-hegemons, takes centre stage, as their large power capabilities are arguably accompanied by the responsibility to provide good water governance. In the Asian context, China readily comes to mind as a hydro-hegemon due to its favourable geographical upstream position and superior material power. But how has China made use of these and related assets? Simply put, has China been a good or bad hydro-hegemon? To answer this question, this chapter will apply the framework of hydro-hegemony as introduced by (Zeitoun and Warner in Water Policy 8:435–460, 2006) to China’s performance in the Mekong region. The chapter’s main argument is that China could still do much more to be a better hydro-hegemon in this particular river basin, providing more positive leadership and sharing the Mekong’s resources in a more cooperative way.
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Notes
- 1.
In their advancement of the original hydro-hegemony framework, Cascao and Zeitoun (2010) frame hydro-hegemony as consisting of four kinds of power (instead of three), in which riparian position is conceived of as geographical power and exploitation potential is subsumed under material power. The other two continue to be bargaining and ideational power.
- 2.
As a matter of fact, control may also be contested, but in those cases there is no hydro-hegemony or hydro-hegemony is in a state of flux (Zeitoun and Warner 2006).
- 3.
Note that due to China’s tight information policy, the precise number of China’s planned and completed Lancang dams varies by source.
- 4.
It is also noteworthy that from April to November 2019, China was claimed to have “turned off the tap on the Mekong River” by impounding much more water than ever before, thereby driving the severe drought situation in the lower basin (Eyler and Weatherby 2020: online). Others, however, have questioned whether the satellite data available justify such a serious claim (Ketelsen et al. 2020).
- 5.
It should also be mentioned that China has rejected (regularly) sharing hydrological data during the dry season, in spite of MRC requests (Biba 2018a). Also see Rampini (this volume) regarding how this issue is addressed in the Yarlung-Tsangpo-Brahmaputra basin.
- 6.
In this case, non-traditional security threats include non-military elements such as smuggling, drug trafficking, and illegal migration. For a brief conceptual overview of the similarities and differences between traditional and non-traditional security threats, see Biba (2016a).
- 7.
Also see the chapter by Hennig and Magee, this volume.
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Biba, S. (2021). China’s Hydro-Hegemony in the Mekong Region: Room for Improvement. In: Rousseau, JF., Habich-Sobiegalla, S. (eds) The Political Economy of Hydropower in Southwest China and Beyond. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59361-2_11
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