Tag: China-Mekong geopolitics
The Lancang-Mekong cooperation framework: China’s real motivation
There are several reasons why China finally takes part in a cooperation framework with the lower Mekong countries. One of them is allow China to enter a ‘damage control’ diplomacy.
Mekong channel navigation project only helps China: Thai businesses
Pratch Rujivanarom Cargo shipping on the river is now dominated by Chinese firms. THAI businesses have voiced concern over the Mekong River Navigation Channel Improvement Project, arguing that only Chinese businesses will profit while Thai businesses are kept out of the market. As China’s CCCC Second Harbor Consultant Co Ltd surveys the Mekong River in […]
Target Thailand and radiate southeast, China PV enterprises arrange global market
Lam Sun Due to high cost and American and European anti-dumping tariff, the business of China solar panel manufacturers was gloomy in past 2 years. During this depression, the renewable energy markets in newly emerging Asian countries became the substitute of China manufacturers. Thai Rayong Industrial Park, 140 kilometers from Bangkok, Thailand, has become the […]
Drowning in generosity
Again?” Chai Tamuen, 42, thought when he saw Mekong water rising at the riverbank of Chiang Khan district in Loei eight days ago.
Overnight, water had engulfed the sandy shore of Kaeng Khut Khu, a tourist spot popular for swimming and recreation, leaving stalls stranded on an “island” now surrounded by water.
As a vendor, Mr Chai was forced to leave his kiosk four days later when water submerged half of the island.
“This is not the first time that the bank has been flooded in dry season. It’s happened like this for the last five years,” he said.
“We can’t predict water. Our income has not been stable since Chinese dams have taken control over the water upstream.”
China announced on March 14 it would discharge a massive quantity of water from one of its dams, claiming it would help communities in the Mekong region facing severe drought.
China Focus: Lancang-Mekong cooperation enriches countries along the river
A border railway station which has been in existence for more than 100 years in southwest China’s Yunnan Province got a new lease on life last year after having been left desolate for a decade.
The cargo train via Shanyao Station on the China-Vietnam border hit the buffers in 2013 and was suspended for a while. The service has since resumed and is now busier than ever.
A railway linking Kunming in Yunnan province and the border with Vietnam opened in December 2014 and the following year 366,400 tonnes of cargo — iron ore, sulfur, fertilizer and so on — flowed from China into Vietnam via Shanyao, over 100 times more than the year before. Already this year, 89,700 tonnes of goods have gone the same way.
Water management center for Mekong River to be established
The Prime Minister has revealed a water management center will be set up under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) to manage water levels in the Mekong River more effectively.
Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said after returning from the first MLC meeting in China that the water management center will alert countries in the Mekong River Basin to be prepared whenever China discharges water into the river.
NGOs question China’s dam release
One week ago, China doubled the quantity of water released from the Jinghong Dam along the Mekong River in Yunnan province. This came two days following Vietnamese officials meeting in Beijing to request the increase due to severe drought conditions and low flows in the Mekong Delta. But at a press conference in Bangkok yesterday, representatives of Thai civil society and communities denounced the action as destructive and insincere.
“No one doubts that people in the Vietnamese Delta may be suffering from salt water intrusion due to low Mekong flows this dry season,” said Montree Chantawong from Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), “But these additional dam releases can’t really help them, yet are hurting many of us.”
China leaves little doubt who is master of the Mekong
Supalak Ganjanakundee China is demonstrating that it has real power to control and manage the Mekong River, as Beijing launches a diplomatic campaign to engage with affected countries downstream. This situation has become clear after China’s contacts with the other five countries along the river – Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Physically, about half […]