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China, not Tibet, comes first for Asian states
Michael Richardson, The Straits Times via LexisNexis News
THE recent anti-Chinese protests in Tibet and several surrounding provinces in China have been watched with concern by governments in South and South-east Asia, especially India. They have called for restraint on both sides of the dispute while reassuring Beijing they will not support any call to boycott or disrupt the summer Olympic Games that China will host soon.
The neighbours are edgy. Unlike faraway Europe and the United States, their priority in Tibet is stability, not human rights. China’s rapid rise as an economic giant is having mainly beneficial effects in South and South-east Asia. Trade with China has promoted growth in the region while Western demand is slowing as the US economy slumps and the credit crisis saps confidence.
… From China’s perspective, national unity is challenged by separatists in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, another nominally autonomous region north of Tibet. Indigenous groups in both regions chafe under Chinese rule and resent the large-scale settlement of Han Chinese in these areas.
Both regions are strategically vital to China. Xinjiang is a treasure trove of oil, gas and minerals. It is also China’s gateway to Pakistan and to energy-rich Central Asia.
Chinese government geologists reported last year that they had found huge deposits of copper, lead, zinc and iron ore in Tibet – minerals that China must now import on a large scale. In addition, Tibet is the source and store of much of China’s fresh water. This makes China the dominant headwater power in Eurasia, giving it control over the upper reaches of some of the great rivers that flow into South and South-east Asia. The Brahmaputra, Mekong and Salween rivers all start in the glaciers and snow-fed highlands on the ‘roof of the world’, the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.
China, short of both electricity and water, is in the midst of a massive dam-building programme.
(21 March 2008)
Look beneath the surface of political conflicts, and what do we find? Energy and water issues. -BA
China unveils renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010
An Lu (editor), Xinhuanet
China’s annual consumption of renewable energy will reach the equivalent of 300 million tons of standard coal by 2010, which would be 10 percent of its total annual energy consumption, under the renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010.
The plan was released on Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planning agency.
The plan says 2010 renewable energy consumption will nearly double the 2005 level, which was equivalent to 166 million tons of standard coal. That led to a reduction of 3 million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions and more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Given the dearth of petroleum and natural gas resources and the large share of coal in China’s energy production, it is difficult for the nation to sustain its development and protect the environment by relying simply on fossil fuels, the NDRC said.
China boasts abundant renewable resources that could be exploited, the plan says. It says that by 2010:
- the nation will have hydropower projects with a combined installed capacity of 190 million kilowatts and wind power projects with installed capacity of 10 million kw.
- the installed capacity of bio-energy projects will reach 5.5million kw and that of solar energy projects will be 300,000 kw.
- domestically produced hydropower equipment and solar water heaters should become competitive on global markets.
- wind power equipment manufacturers should put generating units with installed capacities of at least 1.5 million watts into mass production.
(17 March 2008)
Water will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister
Ben Russell, UK Independent
The world faces a future of “water wars”, unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the [UK’s] International Development minister.
The minister’s warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. “If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may become the subject of international conflict in the years ahead,” said Mr Thomas. “We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future.”
His department warned that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025. The stark prediction comes after the Prime Minister said in his national security strategy that pressure on water was one of the factors that could help countries “tip into instability, state failure or conflict”.
(22 March 2008)
