BEIJING: China on Tuesday denied a story published in Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, which was widely reported in Indian newspapers, that it has plans to build a 1,000-km long tunnel to divert waters of the Brahmaputra from Tibet to its arid Xinjiang region. It described the report as false.
The denial came from the Chinese foreign ministry a day after SCMP said that Chinese engineers had submitted the plan to higher authorities in Beijing for approval, and were awaiting a nod. The report said that the project, which would also require environmental clearance, would cost $150 billion.
"This is a false report," said foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a media briefing. She added that China would hold talks on issues related to the river with countries downstream, which are India and Bangladesh.
"China will continue to attach great importance for cooperation on trans-border water resources," she said. India has reasons to worry because China stopped providing it with hydrological data about the Brahmaputra river flow which it had supplied in 2014 to 2016.
Although China has denied the diversion plan, the report helped Beijing alert the Indian public that it has the power to influence the flow of Brahmaputra in a drastic manner if it wishes to, observers said. This is an important advantage because New Delhi is usually reluctant to discuss dangers for downstream areas because China controls the river's flow.
China had assured India in 2010 that it would not build large storage dams that could pose serious risks to India's Northeast, and merely focus on constructing run-of-the-river dams for generating hydroelectricity. It has built a 510 mw dam at Zangmu area of Tibet and begun work on three more dams on the river. Environmentalists have often expressed concern that the dams can seriously hamper the river's ecosystem.