https://www.scmp.com/rss/269988/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The building of large dams has increasingly run into opposition in established democracies but gained momentum in autocratic states, which often tout their benefits for combating droughts and water shortages. But, as the Mekong basin illustrates, giant upstream dams can contribute to river depletion and intensify parched conditions. The spate of dam building in Asian autocracies is exacerbating already fraught water security disputes. India, for its part, shows that dams and democracy normally... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3039053/chinas-dam-building-programme-must-take-neighbours-account?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3039053/chinas-dam-building-programme-must-take-neighbours-account?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Nov 2019 08:00:15 +0000 The media spotlight on India-Pakistan tensions over the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has helped obscure the role of a key third party, China, which occupies one-fifth of this Himalayan region. Kashmir is only a small slice of J&K, whose control is split among China, India and Pakistan. Sino-Indian border tensions were exemplified by a reported September 11-12 clash between troops from the two countries in the eastern section of J&K, where Beijing’s territorial revisionism has... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3030799/china-india-pakistan-whos-really-pulling-strings-jammu-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3030799/china-india-pakistan-whos-really-pulling-strings-jammu-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Sep 2019 12:30:12 +0000 Thanks to excessive damming and drastic overuse of water resources, an increasing number of major rivers across the world are drying up before reaching the sea. Nowhere is this more evident than in China, where the old saying, “Follow the river and it will eventually lead you to a sea,” is no longer wholly true. While a number of smaller rivers in China have simply disappeared, the Yellow River – the cradle of the Chinese civilisation – now tends to run dry before reaching the sea. This has... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3011395/no-time-waste-saving-worlds-rivers-drying-especially-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3011395/no-time-waste-saving-worlds-rivers-drying-especially-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 May 2019 08:00:14 +0000 Economically and strategically, the global centre of gravity is shifting to the Indo-Pacific region. Security dynamics and power relationships are changing rapidly in this region. Two recent summits underscore the changing dynamics – between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Beijing, and between Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan. Japan and India have reason to try to improve strained ties with China. But as Beijing has come under greater US... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2172021/why-playing-rules-pathway-peace-and-security-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2172021/why-playing-rules-pathway-peace-and-security-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2018 03:45:15 +0000 Despite its lack of cohesiveness and geopolitical heft, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations likes to be in the driver’s seat even on initiatives that extend beyond its region. But having placed itself at the wheel, Asean usually needs instructions from back-seat drivers on how to proceed and where to go. One such example is the Asean Regional Forum, which provides a setting for annual ministerial discussions on peace and security issues across the Asia-Pacific. Established in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2160250/aseans-limits-are-display-effort-build-robust-southeast?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2160250/aseans-limits-are-display-effort-build-robust-southeast?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Aug 2018 05:02:20 +0000 China’s hyperactive dam building is a reminder that, while the international attention remains on its recidivist activities in the South China Sea’s disputed waters, it is also focusing quietly on other waters – of rivers that originate in Chinese-controlled territory like Tibet and flow to other countries. No country in history has built more dams than China. In fact, China today boasts more dams than the rest of the world combined. As part of its broader strategy to corner natural resources,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2128119/resource-hungry-china-overdrive-it-wages-water-wars?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2128119/resource-hungry-china-overdrive-it-wages-water-wars?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jan 2018 07:03:06 +0000 Europe is under pressure. Integrating asylum-seekers and other migrants poses a major challenge, complicated by a spike in crimes committed by new arrivals. Many European Muslims have become radicalised, with some heading to Iraq and Syria to fight under Islamic State, and others carrying out terror attacks at home. Add to that the incendiary nativist rhetoric of populist political leaders, and the dominant narrative in Europe is increasingly one of growing insecurity. Many European countries... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2008251/strike-roots-radicalism-europe-must-look-beyond-burqa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2008251/strike-roots-radicalism-europe-must-look-beyond-burqa?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Aug 2016 05:34:53 +0000 Bottled water is the largest growth area in the beverage industry, even in cities where tap water is safe. This has been a disaster for the environment and the poor. The bulk of bottled water sold worldwide is drawn from the subterranean water reserves of aquifers and springs, many of which feed rivers and lakes. Tapping such reserves can aggravate drought conditions. Bottling the run-off from glaciers is not much better, as it diverts that water from ecosystem services like recharging wetlands... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1858955/rise-bottled-water-industry-disaster-environment-and-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1858955/rise-bottled-water-industry-disaster-environment-and-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Sep 2015 02:37:51 +0000 Sri Lanka's parliamentary election this month promises to shape not only the country's political future, but also geopolitics in the wider Indian Ocean region, a global centre of trade and energy flows that accounts for half of the world's container traffic and 70 per cent of its petroleum shipments. The country's strategic importance has not been lost on China, which has, to the dismay of India and the US, been working hard to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean. A leading contender in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1849162/sri-lanka-grapples-chinas-embrace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1849162/sri-lanka-grapples-chinas-embrace?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Aug 2015 04:19:12 +0000 This December, world leaders will meet in Paris for the UN Climate Change Conference, where they will hammer out a comprehensive agreement to reduce carbon emissions and stem global warming. In the meantime, governments worldwide should note that the single biggest driver of environmental degradation today is our changing diet - a diet that is not particularly conducive to a healthy life, either. In recent decades, rising incomes have catalysed a major shift in people's eating habits, with meat,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1826328/how-we-are-slowly-killing-planet-our-love-meat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1826328/how-we-are-slowly-killing-planet-our-love-meat?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jun 2015 03:28:20 +0000 Competition for strategic natural resources - including water, mineral ores and fossil fuels - has always played a significant role in shaping the terms of the international economic and political order. But now that competition has intensified, as it encompasses virtually all of Asia. Asia is the world's most resource-poor continent, and overexploitation of the natural resources it does possess has created an environmental crisis. Population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1210121/fractious-asia-risking-conflict-over-resources?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1210121/fractious-asia-risking-conflict-over-resources?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 As if to highlight that Asia's biggest challenge is managing the rise of an increasingly assertive China, Beijing has unveiled plans to build large new dams on major rivers flowing to other countries. The decision to ride roughshod over downstream countries' concerns shows that the main issue facing Asia is the need to persuade China's leaders to institutionalise co-operation with neighbours. China is at the geographical hub of Asia, sharing land or sea frontiers with 20 countries; so, in the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1187716/chinas-dam-frenzy-threat-water-security?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1187716/chinas-dam-frenzy-threat-water-security?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000