Those disputes are bound to worsen, given China’s new focus on erecting mega-dams, best symbolized by its latest addition on the Mekong – the 4,200-megawatt Xiaowan Dam, which dwarfs Paris’s Eiffel Tower in height – and a 38,000-megawatt dam planned on the Brahmaputra at Metog, close to the disputed border with India. The Metog Dam will be twice as large as the 18,300-megawatt Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, construction of which uprooted at least 1.7 million Chinese.
随着其建坝热潮从国内河流转移到跨国河流，中国目前几乎和所有下游国家都产生了水资源纠纷。同时中国逐渐将目光转向兆瓦级水电站的举动——最佳例子莫过于最近在湄公河上游澜沧江建成，装机容量4200兆瓦，坝体高度令巴黎埃菲尔铁塔都相形见拙的小湾电站，以及计划在临近中印边界争议地区的雅鲁藏布江墨脱段兴建，装机容量达3.8万兆哇的水电站——这些争端必将逐渐恶化。中国的三峡水电站装机以1.83万兆瓦的装机容量位列世界第一，建造过程中产生了170万移民，而墨脱水电站的装机容量则是前者的两倍有余。