Power Play: China’s Mega-Dam Isn’t Needed for Electricity, Says Hydrologist

Without the project, China would lose its hydro-electric crown to the DRC, where what would have been the world’s largest dam is being built across the Congo.

An aerial view of part of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet on April 7, 2025. Shutterstock

A Chinese hydrologist has described China’s new mega-dam project in the Tibet Autonomous Region as a political endeavor of communist leader Xi Jinping aimed at reviving national pride rather than safely addressing the country’s energy needs.

Formally known as the Motuo Hydropower Station, or Medog to Tibetans, the $167 billion dam project in Motuo (Medog) county along the Yarlung Tsangpo River—the headwaters of Siang River in the Indian state of Assam, which then flows on to become India’s Brahmaputra River and Bangladesh’s Jamuna River—was officially approved in December 2024, with construction formally launched on July 19 of this year.