『Abstract
This article uses hydropower development on the Lancang (upper
Mekong River) and Nu (upper Salween River) as a lens for exploring
institutional change and decision-making processes among governmental
units and hydropower companies under the Great Western Development
campaign. Scholars of the campaign tend to focus on central government
policies and individual provinces' responses, and on the campaign's
role as a central-state-strengthening project aimed at curbing
regionalist tendencies. Large-scale hydropower development in
Yunnan, however, is a complex affair involving national and provincial
power companies, regional grids and governmental units at many
levels. Conceptualizing Yunnan as the “powershed” of Guangdong,
I argue that the western Development campaign paves the way for
increasingly strong interprovincial linkages between Guangdong
and Yunnan that are not necessarily central-state-strengthening,
and that consideration of such linkages should be fundamental
to any attempt to understand the impacts of China's western development.』
(Introduction)
Politics of scale in Western Development
Controversial cascades
Hydropower development on the Lancang-Mekong
Planned hydropower development on the Nu-Salween
How the waters were divided
Conclusion: Processes, powersheds and multi-scalar analysis
(footnote)