Xi Jinping
On Thursday, China had formally approved the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the draft outline of which was passed by the National People’s Congress as it closed its six-day annual session. Among its key projects is the building of a hydropower base on the lower reaches of Yarlung-Zangbo which refers to the section of the river in Tibet just before it enters India in Arunachal Pradesh, a Sichuan-Tibet railway near the Indian border and a push for self-sufficiency in emerging industries such as Artificial Intelligence.
A railway line would also be built from Xigaze in Tibet to Gyirong on the Tibet-Nepal border. Not only that, the FYP put emphasis on access to key border highways including the G219 national highway which runs along the entire length of India-China border in Xinjiang and Tibet. India had announced its concern over the building over four dams on the upper and middle reaches, the first of which was Zangmu that had been operationalized in 2015. Indian officials are monitoring flows of the river closely through individual assessments and hydrological data provided by China under a bilateral agreement.