Water is power: How Southeast Asia pays the price for China’s dam-building frenzy

China’s rise over the last four decades has been manifested in growing economic, military and political power. One source of that power is its control over resources needed by other countries, such as minerals used in today’s high-tech batteries and solar-energy systems. A more prosaic power resource is the water in China’s trans-boundary rivers. That water has historically flowed unrestrained into other countries, but now it is increasingly being impeded by Chinese dams. As Hong Kong marks 25 years since the end of British rule, it is opportune to remind ourselves that water played an importa…

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