February 17, 2017: The Upstream Superpower: China’s Transboundary River Policies

A significant aspect of China’s power is its role as the upstream superpower of Asia. It is the upstream riparian on many of Asia’s most important international rivers, including the Mekong, Brahmaputra, Sutlej, Indus, Salween, and Irrawaddy, among others. Its predominant economic and military power gives it significant advantages over its smaller and weaker downstream neighbors.

In this seminar, Dr. Selina Ho discussed China’s behavior as a hydro-hegemon. She first compares China’s and India’s roles as hydro-hegemons. Hydro-hegemons can provide both positive and negative forms of leadership, the former leading to cooperative outcomes and the latter to conflict in transboundary river basins. Using case studies of the Mekong and the Ganges, Dr. Ho examines the constraints on China and India as hydro-hegemons, and the conditions under which they would cooperate or not cooperate with other riparians. Dr. Ho then discusses the specific motivations for China’s transboundary water cooperation with Kazakhstan. China’s relatively higher level of institutionalized cooperation with Kazakhstan is the result of linkages between water issues and a cluster of political, economic, security, and strategic issues. China’s transboundary water cooperation with Kazakhstan offers useful lessons for smaller and weaker downstream states seeking cooperation from stronger upstream states. @Jiangnan @Krishna with Flute