The Grand Strategy Behind China's Tibet Dam

Building mega-dams domestically and abroad helps China diversify energy supply, reduce maritime supply vulnerabilities, and establish itself as a global clean-energy provider with proprietary transmission technologies and governance benchmarks away from the western standards.

- B.R. DEEPAK

On 19 July 2025, Chinese Premier Li Qiang officially launched construction of the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) Hydropower Project in Medog County, Tibet Autonomous Region, a project involving a "cutting the bend" tunnel diversion approach, channeling part of the river's water through massive tunnels. In the canyon's natural drop of 2,300-2,400 meters, five cascade hydropower stations will be built at a total estimated cost of ¥1.2 trillion (US$167 billion).

Chen Dongping, former Deputy Secretary-General of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, told "China Industry News" that the "cutting-the-bend tunnel diversion" method, first used at the Jinping II Hydropower Station on the Yalong River, created a 120-km underground network over 2,500 meters deep, a world record. Lin Bogiang, Chair Professor at Xiamen University's School of Management and Director of the China Energy Policy Research Institute revealed that "cutting the bend" is not a new technology; it has been used in hydropower projects on the Jinsha, Dadu, and Wu Rivers, enabling shorter water flow paths, greater drops, higher efficiency, and lower costs.

With a planned installed capacity of 60 GW and projected annual generation of 300 billion kWh, about three times the output of the Three Gorges Dam, it is set to become the world's largest hydropower facility. China Yajiang Group Co., Ltd., a conglomerate of 99 state-owned enterprises was officially established to take full responsibility for the Lower Reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River (Yaluxia) Hydropower Project.