China’s Dams & Regional Security Implications An Indian Perspective

This brief provides a historical-cum-ongoing account as well as an assessment of the future of China’s dam-building exercise, its rationale and consequences at all levels – geographically, environmentally, socially, economically and politically; and argues that they threaten China’s security and its “peaceful rise/development.” Various studies show that China’s dams are increasingly adding to its geological vulnerability. For instance, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was supposedly triggered by the nearby Zipingpu Dam. Southwest China is seismically vulnerable and not conducive for large projects... Many dams in Sichuan and Yunnan have thus come under the scanner for their ability to induce earthquakes.