"Infrastructure and State-Building: China’s Ambitions for the Lower Yarlung Tsangpo Project" - by CWP alum Hong Zhang

19 July 2025, Nyingchi, Tibet. Against a bold red backdrop with snow-capped mountains looming in the distance, China’s Premier Li Qiang—flanked on both sides by four senior officials and leaders of major state-owned enterprises—formally announced the ground breaking on the Lower Yarlung Tsangpo Hydropower Project (LYT project). Below the stage, rows of officials and engineers stood in disciplined formation, as though receiving orders for a pre-battle mobilisation.

With an estimated cost of RMB1.2 trillion (approximately US$167 billion), the LYT project is poised to be the world’s most expensive single infrastructure development. If the planned five cascade hydropower stations with a combined installed capacity of up to 60 gigawatts are realised, it will be the largest hydropower project globally.

While no official details have been released, the LYT project is widely expected to be located near the Great Bend on the lower Yarlung Tsangpo River—a dramatic U-turn where the river cuts through the Himalayas before flowing south into India as the Brahmaputra. Within a 50-kilometre straight-line distance, the river descends nearly 2,000 metres in elevation. Coupled with the substantial flow volume of one of China’s major stem rivers, this section is believed to possess one of the world’s greatest untapped hydropower potentials.

Written on 7 August 2025. Author: Hong Zhang

Hong Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the International Studies Department. With a PhD in Public Policy from George Mason University, her research focuses on China’s role in global development, particularly in infrastructure development and industrialization. Her fieldwork has taken her to various countries in Asia and Africa to examine China’s developmental impact. She co-edits the People’s Map of Global China and the Global China Pulse journal, initiatives that foster collective efforts to study China’s global presence. Prior to joining Indiana University, she was a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (2022-2024), a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program (2021-2022). She holds a Master's degree in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Renmin University of China.

Photo Credit: By Boqiang Liao from Athens,Ohio , US - upstream of Brahmaputra River 雅鲁藏布江上游Uploaded by PDTillman, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12401002