Dams on the Mekong

Dams on the Mekong A literature review of the politics of water governance influencing the Mekong River Karl-Inge Olufsen Spring 2020 Master thesis in Human geography at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Words: 28,896 08.07.2020 II Dams on the Mekong A literature review of the politics of water governance influencing the Mekong River III © Karl-Inge Olufsen 2020 Dams on the Mekong: A literature review of the politics of water governance influencing the Mekong River Karl-Inge Olufsen http://www.duo.uio.no/ IV Summary This thesis offers a literature review on the evolving human-nature relationship and effect of power struggles through political initiatives in the context of Chinese water governance domestically and on the Mekong River. The literature review covers theoretical debates on scale and socionature, combining them into one framework to understand the construction of the Chinese waterscape and how it influences international governance of the Mekong River. Purposive criterion sampling and complimentary triangulation helped me do rigorous research despite relying on secondary sources. Historical literature review and integrative literature review helped to build an analytical narrative where socionature and scale explained Chinese water governance domestically and on the Mekong River. Through combining the scale and socionature frameworks I was able to build a picture of the hybridization process creating the Chinese waterscape. Through the historical review, I showed how water has played an important part for creating political legitimacy and influencing, and being influenced, by state-led scalar projects. Because of this importance, throughout history the Chinese state has favored large state-led scalar projects for the governance of water. This water governance was primarily influenced by the modernist-like Confucian school of thought that espoused recreating nature in humans’ image. The historical review showed how path- dependent socionatural relations and scalar preferences in water governance have evolved throughout history in order to develop characteristics that influence contemporary Chinese participation in, and interaction with Mekong governance institutions. Even though there exist different scalar projects with water governance in mind, all three of them create a scale mismatch were the scale of governance impacts the sustainable governance of the Mekong River for all its people and animals relying on its waters. Through the new scalar project of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, China is contributing to a reproduction of a Chinese socionature with the Chinese water machine constructing dams all throughout the Mekong region. By using this framework, it is possible to create novel understandings of Chinese interactions with current international Mekong institutions. The framework highlights how national political processes influence a state’s participation with international institutions. This framework can thus be used by policy creators to anticipate how different states will interact with different international institutions based on analysis of current socionatural relations and scalar arrangements. V VI Preface The work on this Master thesis have been an educational process that have provided a plethora of useful experiences and knowledge. I want to primarily thank my excellent supervisor, Andrea Nightingale, who have been a great help to writing and finishing this master thesis. I want to thank all teachers and students who enabled my academic and personal growth during the last two years. Finally, I would like to thank all my friends and family whose support during the challenging times the last semester have been crucial for my mental wellbeing and getting over the line. VII VIII Innholdsfortegnelse 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 2 Research questions..........................................................................................................5 3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................7 3.1 Literature sampling...................................................................................................7 3.2 Analytical methods ................................................................................................. 10 4 Literature review........................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Politics of scale ...................................................................................................... 14 4.2 Poststructuralist scale ............................................................................................. 17 4.3 Scalar politics ......................................................................................................... 20 4.4 Scale in political ecology ........................................................................................ 21 4.5 Scale weaknesses.................................................................................................... 24 4.6 A Chinese ‘nature’.................................................................................................. 25 4.7 Socionature ............................................................................................................ 27 5 History .......................................................................................................................... 32 5.1 Philosophy ............................................................................................................. 32 5.2 Early history ........................................................................................................... 35 5.3 The Grand Canal .................................................................................................... 37 5.4 River diking and the Yellow River ......................................................................... 39 5.5 Exporting socionatural habits and scalar arrangements ........................................... 40 5.6 Modern history ....................................................................................................... 42 5.7 The Mao era ........................................................................................................... 44 5.8 The Reform era ...................................................................................................... 47 5.9 The Three Georges Dam ......................................................................................... 50 6 The governance of the Mekong ..................................................................................... 55 6.1 Mekong introduction .............................................................................................. 55 6.2 The Greater Mekong Subregion .............................................................................. 56 6.3 Mekong River Commission .................................................................................... 58 6.4 Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism............................................................. 61 6.5 Power relations on the Mekong .............................................................................. 63 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 67 8 Sources ......................................................................................................................... 70 IX 1 Introduction Transboundary conflicts over dams and use of river water is becoming increasingly politicized as global climate change, population explosions and increased consumption is making fresh water more important than ever. The Mekong River being one of the most important in South- East Asia is no exception (Abbs, 2017). Fuelled by the preference and need for large-scale water projects for the Chinese political elite’s power, an increasing number of Chinese dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong have been constructed the last decades. This have raised questions about the environmental impact and influence on droughts from their downstream neighbours and multilateral governance institutions. This thesis will look at what influenced the building of these dams, and subsequently how the Chinese interact with their downstream neighbours. Much of the focus on large dam development projects have been focused on potential resettlement of people affected by their construction, but less attention has been given to population living downstream of dams whose livelihoods have been affected (Richter et al. 2010). This thesis will join a growing number of articles looking at Mekong River governance. It does so through analysing the Chinese national context, and how this influence Chinese participation in Mekong River governance institutions. Context in this thesis is conceptualised as socionatural relations and scalar politics, related to the expectations, norms and governance of socionature, and water in particular. The aim of this thesis will thus be to combine two theoretical frameworks central within political ecology and human geography, that of socionature and scale to first give a comprehensive discussion on the trajectory that created the current Chinese socionature and then to analyse three Mekong river governance initiatives through the Chinese perspective.

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